


An Arduous Search for Nothing

by xAoneko



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Betrayal, Cultivators, Don't Try This At Home, Historical, M/M, MAMA Era Powers (EXO), Theft, Tragedy, X-EXO, blood/gore, insanity/mental breakdowns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:42:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26022109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xAoneko/pseuds/xAoneko
Summary: When Jongin hears of a way to bring the dead back to life, he knows it's an opportunity he can't miss.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 16
Kudos: 37
Collections: EXOventure Round 1 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt #:** M033  
>  **Prompt:** Jongin’s boyfriend died some years ago, and he’s been lost ever since. One day he hears about a way to contact the spirit realm, and he’s willing to do anything to get there just to see his love again.
> 
>  **Author's Note:** Thank you so much to the mods for hosting this fest, and thank you to the prompter for submitting such a great prompt! I hope my fic does it justice~!  
> Please do leave a kudo/comment if you enjoyed reading <3

The Dancing Phoenix stands at the corner of the street in Old Jade Town, alive with the smell of freshly cooked food and the sound of relaxed chatter. Two white paper lanterns, decorated with red trimming and phoenixes, hang just outside the main door. A family of three walks out of the Dancing Phoenix, and the child, carried in her father’s arms, reaches out and swats at one of the lanterns, sending it swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

Inside the red-painted walls of the tavern, travelers fill the tables on the first floor. Servers bustle about, carrying plates of food or jars of wine to various customers throughout the room and engaging some in small talk.

The front doors swing open with a creak, and a youthful-looking man in billowing robes of white and blue steps inside. One of the servers, having just delivered a couple dishes to a table, hurries over to greet him.

“Minseok-ssi! Welcome to the Dancing Phoenix! Are you here to see the boss?”

Minseok smiles, revealing his gums. “I am. Is Jongin busy?”

“He is upstairs in his room. I can take you to him.”

“Please.” Minseok follows the server across the first floor and up the flight of black, wooden stairs that creak under their weight. The second floor is far quieter than the first, and Minseok takes the time to appreciate the intricate phoenixes decorating the walls, spreading their wings as though they would take flight from the thick paper at any moment.

“These phoenixes weren’t here the last time I came by,” Minseok comments.

“The boss added them just a few weeks ago,” his guide replies. “He felt that the walls were too bare.”

The pair stop before the sliding doors at the end of the hall, and the server raises his hand to knock on the wooden frame.

Inside his room, Jongin jerks awake, staring blankly at the ink-stained paper before him. Clearing his throat, he crumples up the ruined sheet and rolls it underneath his bed before calling out, “Who is it?”

“It’s Minjoon, sir. I brought Minseok-ssi. He said he’s here to see you.”

Upon hearing Minseok’s name, Jongin straightens in his seat, setting his brush on the edge of the inkwell. “Come in.”

As the door slides open, Jongin stands up and hurries over to greet Minseok, dismissing Minjoon with a nod. The server bows and closes the door, and the sound of his footsteps fade with the creaking of the floorboards. Once Minjoon is gone, Jongin turns to Minseok and grabs him in a tight embrace, hunkering down a little to make up for the height difference and bury his face in Minseok’s shoulder.

Laughing at Jongin’s antics, Minseok says, “Come now, Jonginnie, you’re far too old to be clinging to your hyung like this.” Nevertheless, he still reaches up to pat Jongin’s back and ruffle his hair.

With a small whine, Jongin retreats but keeps one arm around Minseok’s shoulders. “Hyung, it’s been months since I last saw you. Do you want some tea? Or maybe some snacks? I still have some cookies,” he asks as he ushers Minseok to sit on one of the cushions placed next to the window.

“Some tea would be nice,” Minseok says, kneeling on the cushion and carefully rearranging his clothes while Jongin goes to fetch the kettle of water off the pit of hot coal, grabbing a pair of teacups along the way.

He sets the teacups down on the table and pours the tea for Minseok first. "Did you take a detour this time?" Jongin asks, "It's been a while since you've last visited me."

“I did,” Minseok confirms, picking up his teacup and taking a small sip. He licks his lips, gazing down into the peach-colored water. “Is this gnerkle root tea?”

“It is,” Jongin says as he pours a cup for himself. “Did you want something else?”

Minseok shakes his head. “No, this is fine.” He takes another sip. “As I was saying, I did take a detour on my way back here. I was on my way to the Red Ruins after visiting Yixing when I saw that the river flowing from Starshower Spring had dried up. When I arrived at Spinning Silk, the townspeople told me that it’s been like that for days even though they were receiving their usual amount of rain.”

“Something was blocking the springwater from the river,” Jongin easily deduces.

“Exactly,” Minseok says, looking at Jongin with a touch of pride. “So I went to the spring to see what was going on.” The expression on his face molds into a somber one and he places the teacup back on the table with a clack. “I found out that several resentful spirits had merged together into a malevolent ghoul and had taken up residence in the spring.”

Jongin hums. “About how many spirits made up the ghoul?”

“I can’t say for sure. Probably around ten.”

Jongin spills some of his tea. “ _Ten_?”

The minimum number of spirits required to make up a ghoul is three. Those are the weakest of ghouls, easily dispelled with a simple talisman that anyone can make. Most ghouls are composed of around six or seven spirits, and these often need the expertise of one or two trained cultivators in order to be dealt with safely. A ghoul formed from ten spirits is a suicide mission, even for someone as powerful as Minseok.

“Did someone help you with the ghoul?” Jongin squints at Minseok as he wipes away the spilled tea. His eldest hyung wouldn’t have walked away from the threat, but Jongin is also well aware that Minseok would need one or two people helping him in order to come out alive.

“In fact,” Minseok smiles, “Sehun did.”

Jongin blinks. “ _Sehun_ did?” he repeats, finding it difficult to believe that Sehun would be able to help Minseok with something so dire.

Minseok's smile turns rueful. "Sehun doesn't spend every second drunk, Jonginnie."

Jongin sniffs and raises his teacup to his lips as Minseok continues to talk.

"I hope that he tones down his drinking soon. It can't be healthy or safe for him to stumble around everywhere intoxicated. Sooner or later, someone's going to try and rob him, and they're going to succeed if he's too drunk to defend himself. I know that he isn't taking things well, but all of us miss Kyungsoo, Jongdae, and Chanyeol..."

Jongin doesn't remember flinching at Chanyeol's name, but he must have done it because Minseok glances at him and trails off with a cough. Instead, the other switches topics, picking one that isn't so sensitive for Jongin.

"Anyway, I saw Baekhyun on my way back. I think he's doing a little better."

Jongin almost snorts at that. Crazy people never get better. He had seen enough to prove that statement three and a half years ago. The moment Baekhyun started talking to himself, speaking to an apparition of Kyungsoo that nobody else could see, Jongin began to avoid him as though Baekhyun carried some sort of plague, too bogged down with his own baggage to deal with someone else's as well.

"I suppose it's too much to ask if you've seen Junmyeon-hyung, too?" Jongin mutters a little more waspishly than he intends.

If Minseok notices, he doesn't mention it, gazing at Jongin over the rim of his teacup. "Funny you should ask," he says, "I met him out in the City of Golden Bells. He's definitely looking better these days. I think he's starting to recover from Jongdae's death. In fact, he said he would come visit you as soon as he could."

Jongin swallows back the unbidden thoughts that come to him. Instead, he nods and says, "Okay. I'll ask the cook to make some twice-cooked pork when he gets here."

Minseok smiles. He places his empty teacup on the table and says, "That would be nice. I think Junmyeon would really like that." Voice softening, he continues, "I know that you're upset with Junmyeon for disappearing like he did after the war against the Red Force, and you have every right to be. But if you're going to talk to him about it, please remember that Junmyeon was and is also hurting. Just like you. Okay?"

Jongin's eyes burn as he gazes down at the table and nods. Somehow, he feels like a kid who had done something wrong and was being scolded by his older brother.

Minseok reaches over and ruffles Jongin's hair, chuckling when Jongin gives him a sour look and tries to flatten his hair back down. However, it breaks the heavy atmosphere that had settled, and soon, Minseok is standing up to leave.

"I think I've distracted you from your work for long enough," Minseok says as he ties his sword to his waist. "I'll let you go back to taking care of your tavern." He stops and looks around the room, taking in the designs that curl across the paper walls. "I still remember when you were about this tall." Minseok holds his hand at waist height. "And now you're taller than me and managing your own business."

His words sound almost wistful.

Jongin pouts. "Hyung, I can't stay a kid forever."

"I know, I know," Minseok sighs and slides open the door. "I'll be back again when the weather gets colder. In the meantime, don't forget to take care of yourself. Stay safe!"

Knowing that Minseok could go on and on if someone didn't cut him off there, Jongin quickly ushers Minseok down the stairs and out the front door, waving as he watches Minseok get on his horse and ride away.

Once Minseok is gone, Jongin lowers his arm and heads back inside with a heavy heart. Instead of going right back up to his room, he mingles with the customers, stopping by every table to say hello and ask if anyone needs anything. This is one of his routines as the owner of the Dancing Phoenix, but today, Jongin isn't doing it just because he is supposed to. He needs it as an escape from the ache in his chest and the memories of a warm flame.

After bringing out a few jars of wine to some tables and passing on news to a few more, Jongin can no longer find a reason to stay downstairs, especially not when some of the customers are beginning to head to their rooms to rest for the night. He tries to help his employees wipe down the tables and sweep the floors, but there are already enough people handling those tasks, and any more would only be getting in the way. In the end, Jongin can only trudge back to his room, clean up the empty teacups, and quickly organize the work that he never got around to finishing before getting ready for bed.

A cool breeze enters through the window as Jongin stands in his thin inner robe, sending a shiver down his back. He rubs at his arms to quell the outbreak of goosebumps that cover his skin as he hurries over to close the window, wishing that the fire burning in the coal pit was Chanyeol's body pressed against his. Chanyeol would never have let Jongin be cold.

The sudden raucous caw and the beating of wings startle Jongin out of his thoughts, and he stares with furrowed eyebrows as a crow takes flight from the roof of the shop across the street. Crows are far more common out in the west, closer to Spinning Silk. This is the first time Jongin ever sees one out in Old Jade Town. Is it a new migration pattern?

Seeing nothing pressing about the issue, Jongin pushes it to the back of his mind. He shuts the window and heads for his bed, blowing out the candle on his desk before lying down. Trying to conserve heat, he wraps the blanket around him as tightly as he could until he resembles an unbroken cocoon and closes his eyes, willing his body to warm up fast so he can fall asleep easier.

Just like every other night for the past three and a half years, Jongin is cold without Chanyeol.

Jongin wakes the next morning to the smell of roasted chicken. Blinking open his eyes, he squints against the weak sunlight filtering through the paper window and sees the tray of breakfast that one of his employees had dropped off before he woke up.

He eats and dresses quickly, making sure he looks presentable before stepping out of his room with the empty tray. He drops it off in the kitchen, smiling and greeting his workers, and heads out to mingle with his customers. Everything looks normal at first, but then Jongin’s gaze lands on one of the tables in the corner.

He thinks both of them are men, judging by how wide their shoulders are compared to their hips, although he can’t confirm since they have their hoods pulled up over their heads. The black cloaks make Jongin a little nervous since bandits and other vagabonds commonly wear them, but what worries him the most is the rapier that one of them carries at the waist. The rest of his customers seem to be uneasy too since none of the tables right next to the pair in black are occupied.

Still, Jongin doesn’t want to jump to conclusions when the men haven’t done anything like harassing others, so he keeps his cool and goes about greeting his customers like everything is fine, all the while slowly edging his way closer to the pair in black.

As Jongin says hello to a little boy in the group one table over from the pair in black, he manages to catch snippets of the men’s conversation, and what he hears captures his interest completely.

“…a way to…spirit realm!” the taller man appears to be arguing with his companion. “We might be able to bring back the dead!”

Jongin freezes in the middle of tugging on the child’s cheek and half-turns towards the other table. There’s no way he heard correctly…is there? A way to bring back the dead? It can’t be true. If something like that exists, then his master and brothers would have known about it, yet they had never spoken of such a thing.

But what if it’s something that has only been discovered recently? Even in that case, it’s likely that there isn’t much known about it, so something can easily go wrong with whatever process it takes to bring the dead back. It would be a high-risk maneuver, one that involves numerous sacrifices for uncertain results, but would it be worth it?

A chair scrapes across the floor, and Jongin looks back to see the man with the rapier stand up. Jongin catches sight of a sparse mustache and hooked nose before the features disappear under the cloak.

“Listen, brother,” the man says. “I’m not interested in whatever you’ve found this time. I just wanna get back to Mourning Fog.” When the other looks like he’s about to say something, the man holds up one hand and continues, “I’m going to go buy some rations for our journey back. I’ll meet you outside in a bit.”

He pushes his way past Jongin and steps outside, leaving his companion behind. Jongin glances with uncertainty from the door to the lone man sitting at the table, and then he excuses himself from the family he was speaking with to slide into the vacated chair across from the man.

When the man looks up at him and raises a thick eyebrow, Jongin offers a shaky smile and says, “I hope I’m not disturbing you. I think I just heard you mention something about bringing the dead back to life? If you don’t mind…could you tell me more about it?”

The man blinks at him, face impassive as he asks, “And who are you?”

“Ah,” Jongin balks, “I’m Jongin. I’m the owner of the Dancing Phoenix.”

The man eyes him a little before sticking out his hand. “You can call me Hyunseung.”

Jongin shakes his hand, hoping that Hyunseung can’t tell how nervous he is. After all, even if he has to move mountains and burden his soul with the weight of a dozen sacrifices, he would not hesitate to snatch up a chance to see Chanyeol again.

Hyunseung seems to sense something though because he rests his chin on his hands and stares Jongin down with a piercing look. “So what do you want to know? And before you start asking questions, just know that I only heard about this from someone else, so I probably can’t give you all of the answers you’re looking for.”

Jongin swallows. “Anything you can tell me is, um, fine.”

Hyunseung sighs, “Like you heard, it’s apparently a way for the living to contact the spirit realm and bring the dead back to life. I heard about it from a man who was passing through Traveler’s Village. He says it’s only speculated and that nothing about it is certain.”

“Did he tell you how to contact the spirit realm?” Jongin pries.

“As a matter of fact, he did.” Hyunseung’s gaze turns sharp. “You seem awfully invested in this. Is there someone you’re hoping to bring back?”

Jongin’s breath stutters and he lowers his gaze. He thinks he detects some disapproval in Hyunseung’s words, cautioning Jongin not to be too eager to jump into something that would be as dangerous as reviving the dead. Maybe Hyunseung is right, and he should take a step back from this.

However, the wound on Jongin’s soul refuses to back down, and he finds himself saying, “Please, tell me. I-I won’t do anything rash. I just want to _know_.”

Unfortunately, Hyunseung doesn’t look convinced. Instead, he leans away from Jongin with a slight grimace on his face. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to continue our conversation. I think I should–”

Jongin cuts him off there. He knows that his next maneuver is a rather risky one, but he’s not going to let Hyunseung get away. Hyunseung doesn’t understand how Jongin _needs_ to see Chanyeol again, to hear his voice and feel his warmth. The want burns Jongin’s soul, threatening to consume him if he doesn’t quench its thirst.

He pulls out an object from the depths of his robes and holds it out so Hyunseung can see. As he had hoped, the shininess captures Hyunseung’s attention immediately, and the man snaps his mouth shut as he eyes the object before him.

“This ring,” Jongin starts, “is made from pure silver. You can get a lot of money if you sell it to a jeweler in the City of Golden Bells. If you tell me how to contact the spirit realm…then this is yours.”

He really shouldn’t be offering the ring. It’s an object of sentiment that his master had given him when he had still been training under her guidance. All of his brothers have one, each marked with a unique symbol meant to reference their abilities. If Minseok finds out that Jongin offered to trade his away, then he would scold Jongin for sure. However, it would be worth it if Jongin can get Chanyeol back.

Jongin holds his breath as he watches Hyunseung. There is a look of want in the man’s eyes, and Jongin knows that the temptation of money is difficult to resist. He waves his ring around a little in a tantalizing manner, silently coaxing Hyunseung to accept the trade.

In the end, Hyunseung drops his head in his hands with a sigh. “Alright,” he grumbles. “You win. You better not be lying about the ring though.”

“I swear on the Dancing Phoenix that this is real silver,” Jongin vows and then stows the ring back in his robes. “So about the spirit realm…”

“Right,” Hyunseung says shortly. “The man I talked to lives in Traveler’s Village, and he said that to contact the spirit realm, there’s a potion that you need to drink. It’ll let you bring one person back.”

He stops there and looks at Jongin expectantly, and Jongin stares back, waiting for him to continue. When Hyunseung continues to stare, Jongin urges, “Well? What’s the potion?”

“I’m not about to tell you that now. You could take off with the potion and the ring!” Hyunseung snaps.

Jongin raises an eyebrow. “Well, how do I know you won’t take off with the ring the moment I hand it over?” They exchange glares before Jongin says, “How about this: I’ll go get some paper and a brush for you to write down the reagents for the potion, and we can exchange the paper and the rings.”

Hyunseung agrees to it, so Jongin brings over the brush and paper and looks away while Hyunseung writes everything down. When the latter says that he’s done, Jongin retrieves his ring and holds it out, extending his other hand for the paper.

They exchange, and Jongin immediately unfolds the paper, squinting as he tries to read Hyunseung’s messy handwriting.

_ Contacting the Spirit Realm _

1 pound of crushed nightberries

5 oz of gnerkle root

10 spoonfuls of honey

5 mL of hooktail venom

50 mL syncin syrup

He scowls and turns to glare at Hyunseung, who is examining the ring. “Do you take me for a fool?” Jongin demands. “Hooktail venom? Are you trying to poison me?”

“Oh, relax,” Hyunseung retorts. “Don’t you know that gnerkle root is the antidote to hooktail venom? Five ounces of gnerkle is more than enough to neutralize five milliliters of venom.”

Jongin glances back down at the paper. “If the hooktail venom is just getting neutralized, then why does it need to be added in the first place?”

“Honestly? I can’t remember,” Hyunseung grunts and puts the ring in his pocket. “I know I asked the man, and I’m pretty sure he said something about the gnerkle breaking the venom down into required components for the potion. You can ask him yourself if you decide to go to Traveler’s Village. He’s a smiley fellow, shorter than you, and has the loudest laugh I’ve ever heard.”

With that, he stands up. “Well, I better get going now. My friend must be waiting for me. Thanks for the trade.”

“Hold it,” Jongin commands. “You didn’t write the instructions for brewing the potion.”

Rather than getting flustered like Jongin expects, Hyunseung stretches his mouth in a smile so wide that it looks as though his face will split in two. “That’s because I want to be there when you make the potion,” he says. “This way, you’ll have to come looking for me. I plan to be in Mourning Fog within the next two days and will stay there for one or two months, so you have plenty of time.”

Without waiting for a response, Hyunseung pushes open the door of the Dancing Phoenix and steps out, leaving Jongin gaping at his audacity. When Jongin finally regains his wits and rushes out after Hyunseung, the man is already gone. His friend with the rapier is nowhere in sight either.

Jongin grumbles as he stalks back into the Dancing Phoenix, abandoning the rest of his rounds as he hurries upstairs to his room and slams the door behind him. Once he has ensured his privacy, Jongin begins to plan.

Honey is the easiest to get. It’s literally sold in every village and town and is relatively cheap. Jongin will have no trouble acquiring that. Nightberries are also easy to obtain, although Jongin will have to gather it himself from the southern border of the Forest of Illusions. Hooktail venom will be the most dangerous, but Jongin is fairly confident that he won’t have much trouble catching a hooktail and extracting its venom. He had watched Chanyeol do it several times and had learned the method himself so that Chanyeol wouldn’t have to deal with all the danger.

Syncin syrup and gnerkle root are a different story. Syncin syrup is both dangerous and difficult to gather, so it is extremely expensive. Jongin doesn’t know if he can scrounge up enough for fifty milliliters of the reagent. Gnerkle root is moderately priced in general, but as the season gets colder, gnerkle becomes more difficult to find, and hence, the price for it is higher than it would be in the warmer season.

Jongin pushes the issues to the back of his mind for now, deciding that he can figure things out later if he needs to. Right now, he needs to plan his route.

He can buy honey and flasks in Traveler’s Village and then head northwest up to the Moonfall Plateau to catch some hooktails and extract their venom. After that, he can see about buying syncin syrup in Spinning Silk, and if he doesn’t have enough money to get the amount he needs, he can offer some labor in exchange for the syrup. The same idea goes for the gnerkle root, which grows on the western coast near the Place of Crawlers. Lastly, Jongin can circle back to the southern side of the Forest of Illusions, gather the nightberries, and meet Hyunseung in Mourning Fog.

It’s quite a distance to travel, and on horseback, it would take weeks to acquire everything and get to Mourning Fog. Normally, distance wouldn’t be an issue for Jongin, but it’ll be a while before he can rely on his teleportation again since he hasn’t used the ability at all after Chanyeol’s death. He will have to stick with a horse for now. It won’t cost too much, and once his teleportation comes back, Jongin can resell the horse.

That just leaves one last issue: the Dancing Phoenix.

As much as he wants— _needs—_ to go on this journey, Jongin can’t just leave the Dancing Phoenix unattended. The tavern is something that he and Chanyeol had wanted to start together and throwing it away now is out of question. He’s not sure he can trust any of his current employees with the Dancing Phoenix. One of them is still new, two are horrible with numbers, one is too short-tempered, and the last one is too passive. None of them are fit to take over as a temporary manager for the tavern, so that leaves Jongin with the option of asking one of his brothers for help.

Minseok is out of question. He would just scold Jongin, call him blind for wanting to pursue such a questionable endeavor, and take away the reagent list. Jongin is pretty sure that Junmyeon would do the same, albeit with gentler words, and Jongin is not looking for dissuasion.

Baekhyun is also not an option. A madman is the last person Jongin wants to be in charge of the Dancing Phoenix. With Baekhyun around, Jongin would most likely return to find everyone scared of the tavern and the raving lunatic in it.

Honestly, Jongin would prefer if Yixing could come and take over. However, he knows that the latter is already serving as a healer for the Lee family in the City of Golden Bells. It would be difficult to get permission for Yixing to come to Old Jade Town for a few weeks, and even then, it’s unlikely that the Lee family will allow themselves to be without a healer for more than a few days.

Jongin groans, rubbing his temple at the prospect of leaving the Dancing Phoenix in Sehun’s hands, but he figures it can’t be too bad. After all, if Sehun can stay coherent enough to help Minseok defeat a ghoul formed from ten spirits, then Jongin thinks he can trust him to manage the Dancing Phoenix for a bit.

He pulls out the incense burner and a silver-tipped incense cone, setting them up on his desk and lighting the cone. Soon, a minty smell fills the room as thin wisps of smoke escape from the burner. The fumes twist in midair like writhing snakes before they disperse and fade.

Sehun arrives that evening. Instead of opening the doors like a normal person, he stumbles through them with a loud bang and a muttered curse, nearly dropping his jar of wine in the process. Luckily, all of the customers have either left or gone to bed already or Sehun’s entrance would have caused them alarm. The noise still startles Jongin though, and he sighs as he hurries downstairs to get Sehun before the latter stirs up more trouble in his drunken state.

“Jongin!” Sehun slurs the moment he sees Jongin stomping towards him. “You called me?”

“Oh Sehun!” Jongin hisses as he starts to drag Sehun upstairs. “You don’t think you could have at least arrived sober?”

Sehun mumbles something incoherent, leaning his entire weight on Jongin as they struggle up the stairs and down the hall to Jongin’s room. Once they’re inside, Jongin lets go of Sehun and turns to shut the door, and the moment he turns back around, he almost shrieks at the sight of Sehun bending over to examine the stack of papers on Jongin’s desk. The wine jar in his hand had tipped over, and the liquid is now spilling all over the documents.

“Oh Sehun!” Jongin yelps, running over and grabbing the wine before it can do any more damage. “What are you doing?”

“Oops,” Sehun grins apologetically when he sees the mess. “Sorry.”

Jongin sighs and starts pushing Sehun to the bed. “Never mind. Just…go to sleep. We can talk in the morning when you’re sober.”

Sehun continues to mumble nonsense even as Jongin gets him to lay down, but he’s snoring almost immediately after his back hits the bed. With enormous effort, Jongin pushes him to the side and crawls under the covers as well after cleaning up the mess and blowing out the candle.

Unfortunately, his annoyance with Sehun doesn’t end there. Sehun’s arm jolts him out of sleep the next morning, landing painfully on his stomach and knocking the breath out of him. With an exasperated huff, Jongin heaves Sehun’s arm off him, making sure it smacks Sehun in the face. He doesn’t bother waiting to see if Sehun wakes up or not as he rolls out of bed and trudges downstairs for some water to wash his face.

Sehun is sitting up when Jongin returns with a basin of cold water, and Jongin snorts at the sight of Sehun’s mussed-up hair and puffy face. He places the basin on his desk and goes to open the window.

“Get up, you drunk.”

“You called me?” Sehun rasps, voice still dry. He coughs a few times and swipes a hand through his hair, combing some of the unruly strands.

“Wash your face first. I’ll tell you over breakfast.”

Sehun nods and shuffles out of bed. He splashes the first handful of water onto his face when someone knocks on the door, and a server enters with two bowls of steaming congee on a tray. Jongin takes the tray and dismisses the server with a nod.

Mealtimes used to be a lot livelier when it was still the nine of them. Now, Jongin stirs his congee with lukewarm enthusiasm, and across from him, Sehun is only staring into the bowl, spoon held loosely in his hand.

“You’ve gotten thinner,” Jongin remarks, looking at how the bone in Sehun’s wrist sticks out. “Are you eating properly?”

Sehun dips his spoon in the congee and scoops up a small mouthful. “I don’t feel hungry anymore,” he mutters.

They eat in silence for a while until Sehun ultimately breaks it. “So what did you call me for? It can’t be just to make me eat, or did Minseok-hyung ask you to do it?”

Jongin shakes his head as he scrapes the last of the congee from the bowl. “Minseok-hyung didn’t ask me to do anything.”

“Then?” Sehun puts down his spoon and pushes his half-full bowl away, scrutinizing Jongin with sharp eyes.

Jongin mimics him, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. “I need someone to look after the Dancing Phoenix for a while.”

Sehun’s eyebrows raise. “Huh. Really.”

Jongin falters. “You won’t do it?”

“I didn’t say that,” Sehun says. “I’m just surprised. The Dancing Phoenix was yours and Chanyeol-hyung’s idea, and I didn’t think you’d allow anyone else to look after it in your stead.” He runs a thin finger over the end of one of the fans he keeps at his waist. “So why are you suddenly ditching the Dancing Phoenix?”

Jongin glances at the door and lowers his voice. “Yesterday, there was a man in the tavern. Said his name is Hyunseung, and he told me about a way to bring the dead back to life.”

Sehun’s lips press into a thin line as he stares at Jongin. “You’re going to try and bring Chanyeol-hyung back.”

Jongin stares back. “I am.”

Sehun leans back with an incredulous huff. “You’re insane,” he says with a tinge of awe. “Do you even know what you have to do?”

“There’s a potion…” Jongin takes out the sheet of paper with the reagents and slides it across the table to Sehun, who picks it up and scans it with a pinched expression.

“Are you sure it’ll work?” Sehun asks. “Wait, why do you need hooktail venom? That stuff is gonna kill you.” He pauses and then lets out an exclamation. “Ah, wait! I think Yixing-hyung once mentioned that gnerkle root is the antidote to hooktail venom…but would five ounces of it be enough to neutralize the venom completely?”

Jongin shrugs. “I’ll stop by Yixing-hyung’s place and ask him.” He plucks the list out of Sehun’s hand and stows it in his robes. “So you’ll look after the Dancing Phoenix while I’m gone?”

“Yeah,” Sehun sighs. “I still think you’re crazy, but yeah. I’ll be here. What do I have to do?”

Jongin is so ecstatic that he thinks he could kiss Sehun, but instead, he restrains himself and starts teaching Sehun about managing the Dancing Phoenix. He decides to let Sehun act as manager for the next few days, letting his staff know that he will be absent for a while so they can help Sehun get used to the Dancing Phoenix.

Sehun fumbles with the role in the beginning, but he quickly picks up on the different things he has to do. Being a shy person, he is naturally awkward when speaking to customers, but Jongin has faith that Sehun will eventually grow comfortable with that as well.

By the end of the third day, Jongin thinks Sehun can start managing on his own and starts getting ready to leave. He counts out an estimate of how much money he thinks he’ll need and stows it in a red silk pouch that he hides in his robes. Finally, he picks up his sword, tying it to his waist before heading downstairs.

His employees and Sehun are waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. “You better come back soon,” Sehun says, handing him a bag of supplies and food.

Jongin swings the bag over one shoulder. “I will,” he says. “Don’t tell the hyungs what I’m doing, and you better not drink while I’m away.”

Sehun rolls his eyes and practically shoves Jongin out the doors.

Jongin doesn’t leave Old Jade Town right away. Back when they had been fighting the Red Force, Jongin could teleport from place to place in the blink of an eye. That power would be super handy now, but Jongin hasn’t used it since their final battle with the Red Force…and Chanyeol’s death. It will take a while for his teleportation power to come back, so in the meantime, he stops at the stables and buys a horse, leading the white mare out into the street before hoisting himself onto the saddle. He nudges his steed with his heels and starts heading northwest.

A series of small mountains called the Rolling Hills greets him the moment he leaves Old Jade Town. On horseback, it should take him about three days to circle around the base of the northernmost mountain and reach Traveler’s Village. Four if he happens to run into bandits.

It’s just Jongin’s luck that on the third day of his travels, he gets ambushed by a group of bandits. He hadn’t suspected anything when a man in ragged clothes came running up to his horse, claiming that his family had run into some bandits and needed help tending to wounds. Jongin had seen the man’s wagon and the group of people huddled around it and headed over on his horse. After all, he has some bandages in his bag that he can spare.

However, the moment Jongin gets off his horse, the people spring to their feet and pull out knives and daggers from the folds of their sleeves and under their skirts. Jongin’s instincts aren’t completely dull because he unsheathes his own weapon half a second after the bandits do and dodges the man’s attempt to stab him in the back.

Unfortunately, it’s been years since Jongin has had to fight, so even if his senses haven’t become abysmal, they’re still nowhere near the level Jongin needs them to be at in order to take on seven bandits by himself. One of the bandits manages to land a scratch on Jongin’s arm while Jongin is preoccupied with two others, and as the bandit retreats out of reach, Jongin is afraid that he might die here, corpse left for the scavengers when his journey to bring Chanyeol back to life has barely even started.

With a triumphant smirk, the bandit lunges forward again. Jongin raises his sword and braces himself but is confused when the bandit stops and begins to back away, expression morphing into one of fear as she stares past Jongin. Similarly, the other bandits around Jongin are looking in the same direction with identical expressions of terror, so Jongin turns around to see what they’re looking at.

His stomach does some kind of strange flip in both relief and dismay to see Minseok stalking towards him. Right behind him are the rest of Jongin’s brothers, and to Jongin’s anger, Sehun is also present when he is supposed to be watching the Dancing Phoenix!

Then, Jongin’s gaze falls on Baekhyun, who shoots him a wink, and he realizes that there is no need for anger. Sehun, Yixing, Junmyeon, and Minseok are merely illusions. The only real one is Baekhyun.

The bandits, however, do not realize that and are quick to turn tail and flee when the illusion of Minseok unsheathes its sword. The illusions, Baekhyun, and Jongin watch the bandits flee, and as the last bandit disappears over the crest of the Rolling Hills, the illusions of Jongin’s brothers waver and vanish, leaving Baekhyun and Jongin in the middle of the field.

“What are you doing here?” Jongin asks in lieu of a greeting. Was it a coincidence that Baekhyun would be strolling past the Rolling Hills just as Jongin is heading for Traveler’s Village?

Baekhyun’s gaze is unnaturally sharp as he scrutinizes Jongin. Jongin doesn’t like it. He’s used to seeing a half-crazed Baekhyun stumbling around with an unfocused expression and babbling nonsense to an unseen Kyungsoo, and this sane version of Baekhyun worries Jongin more than the unbalanced version does. At least with the crazy version, Jongin already knows what to expect.

“A little birdie told me,” Baekhyun begins, “that _you_ are going on a quest with a rather… _interesting_ goal.”

Jongin curses Sehun under his breath. He had told Sehun not to tell!

“Bringing someone back to life,” Baekhyun continues. “I didn’t think you’d embark on such a reckless endeavor. Do you even know if the potion is going to work?”

Jongin grumbles under his breath. “No, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try,” he says defiantly, daring Baekhyun to try and stop him.

Baekhyun scoffs and one corner of his mouth quirks up. “Who are you, and what have you done to my quiet and unassuming little brother,” he mocks, not waiting for a response as he crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m going with you.”

“What, no!” Jongin says before he can stop himself.

“And why not?” Baekhyun retorts, eyes boring into Jongin’s. “Not trying to insult you, but after what I saw today, it looks like you can use the help.”

Jongin’s ears burn with shame, but there is truth to Baekhyun’s words. After three and a half years of holing up in Old Jade Town and managing a tavern, Jongin is no longer in his prime. If he runs into trouble again, he might not be as lucky as today.

“Come on, Jonginnie,” Baekhyun coaxes. “We can both down this potion and bring people back. You can get Chanyeol and I’ll—I’ll get Kyungsoo.”

There is an unspoken plea in Baekhyun’s voice now, and Jongin feels a stab of guilt. He reviews the reagents for the potion, having memorized the list almost as soon as he had gotten it, and figures that it wouldn’t hurt to let Baekhyun come along. Getting twice the amount of each reagent shouldn’t be a hassle, and Baekhyun can definitely be of help as long as his bouts of insanity don’t get in the way.

Finally, Jongin sighs and agrees to let Baekhyun come along, and Baekhyun’s smile could not be wider.

Unfortunately, the scuffle with the bandits has lost Jongin his horse, so he and Baekhyun have no choice but to walk the rest of the way to Traveler’s Village. Jongin tries to practice teleportation because there is no way he’s going to spend the rest of the journey walking, but the ancient magic continues to elude him.

They arrive at Traveler’s Village at dusk, and Jongin pulls out his pouch, ready to count how many nights they can afford in the tavern. Before he can open it, however, Baekhyun grabs him by the elbow and flies the two of them onto the tavern roof.

“Ever spent a night on a roof before, Jonginnie?” Baekhyun asks as he strips off his cloak and spreads it over the tiles. He lies down and looks at Jongin with amusement dancing in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Jongin shifts his weight from one foot to the other. He actually hasn’t slept on a roof before, and the idea of it brings up a lot of uncomfortable thoughts surrounding Baekhyun’s insanity, but the idea of saving money is too tempting to refuse. He takes off his outermost cloak and mimics Baekhyun, squirming uncomfortably against the hard tiles.

“What if it rains?” he murmurs.

Baekhyun shrugs. “Then we’ll move somewhere else,” he says, “And don’t sleep on your side. Your shoulder, back, and hip will hurt. Sleep on your back.”

Jongin shifts into a more comfortable position, still wondering if sleeping on the roof is worth the few silver pieces that they’re saving.

In the end, he supposes that it isn’t so bad, but that may be because of Baekhyun’s advice to sleep on his back. There had been some stiffness in his body upon waking up, but it had gone away with a bit of stretching. The only complaint that Jongin can come up with is the cold, but he had been dealing with that for the past few days already, and there isn’t much difference in spending a night on a roof versus spending a night at the base of the Rolling Hills. Besides, it doesn’t take him long to warm up once he starts walking through the streets and eating the fresh scallion pancakes that he had bought for breakfast.

“So what are you looking for?” Baekhyun asks through a mouthful of scallion pancake, chewing noisily as he saunters along beside Jongin.

“The apothecary,” Jongin says, finally catching sight of the shop at the end of the street. “I need to buy vials and jars for the potion ingredients.”

The smallest vial available can hold ten milliliters, and Jongin buys one for the hooktail venom and two of the fifty-milliliter vials for the syncin syrup. For the nightberries and gnerkle root, Jongin buys several of the empty jars and stuffs them into his bag along with a bottle containing twenty spoonfuls of honey that he orders from the shopkeeper.

After the apothecary, Jongin stops by the general store and buys a long coil of rope. “Right,” Jongin says as they exit the shop. “Let’s go catch a hooktail.”

They head northwest out of Traveler’s Village, and soon, the grass beneath their feet fades into sun-baked earth. A gust of wind blows dust into their eyes, and Jongin sneezes as some of it ends up in his nose. The ground becomes drier and more cracked the further they go into the Moonfall Plateau, and they don’t stop walking until they find the holes.

The holes are about the size of an apple, and Jongin cautiously kneels in front of one to set a trap. Baekhyun settles next to him and watches as Jongin deftly ties the rope into a noose.

“You’ve done this before,” Baekhyun notes.

Jongin finishes tying the noose and carefully sets it around the mouth of the hole. “I made Chanyeol-hyung teach me,” he says with forced nonchalance. “Didn’t like how he was always the one taking the risk of getting poisoned, so I learned to help him.”

With the trap set, Jongin and Baekhyun retreat into the shade of a protruding rock. Hooktails don’t usually leave their nests until the temperature begins to cool, so Jongin and Baekhyun will be waiting a while before a hooktail comes crawling out of its nest.

As they sit there, gnawing on dried strips of meat and tracing nonsensical shapes in the dirt, Baekhyun gazes out at the sprawling lands. The spot they’re sitting at provides a good view of the rest of the Moonfall Plateau, and the sight is especially beautiful as the sun’s rays dye the dry and barren earth a golden orange.

However, the tranquil bliss shatters when Baekhyun raises an arm and points into the distance. “Wow, you can see the ruins from here,” he says.

Three and a half years ago, the Red Ruins used to be a fortress that stood tall with its gray stone walls and red iron doors. When Jongin and his brothers had stormed the fortress, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo had made sure to demolish all of the supports, letting the building collapse on itself and crush the enemy to death. Unfortunately, the collapse had caught Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae as well. Jongin’s mouth goes dry at the memory of seeing the ground cave in and swallow Chanyeol’s body into the black depths.

Baekhyun doesn’t seem to notice Jongin’s discomfort. “Remember when Kyungsoo rammed the doors of the fortress down?” he reminisces. “I thought the earth was going to split open from how much force he used.”

Jongin makes a noncommittal noise. He can still hear Chanyeol’s triumphant whoop as the fortress gate went crashing down.

“And then Minseok-hyung sent a wave of ice that completely annihilated the first line of enemies!” Baekhyun continues talking about the events of their final battle with the Red Force like a child excitedly telling his parents about a dog he had seen. Jongin listens half-heartedly until Baekhyun says something that makes his stomach drop.

“Kyungsoo survived, did you know that?”

Jongin freezes and slowly looks up at Baekhyun, who stares back with a pleased look on his face. “Kyungsoo’s still alive,” Baekhyun says happily. “I’ve caught glimpses of him following me around. He’s probably waiting for a chance to surprise me or something, so I’m pretending I haven’t noticed him.”

Jongin feels like he’s going to throw up. “Hyung,” he says carefully, “don’t you remember what Yixing-hyung said after the war?”

Baekhyun’s expression twitches. “What did Yixing-hyung say?” he asks.

Yixing had confirmed the deaths of their brothers after the war had ended and he had never been wrong before, but the emptiness in Baekhyun’s voice scares Jongin so much that he swallows what he wants to say and shrinks away with a quiet ‘never mind.’ He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds before he remembers the bout of clarity that Baekhyun had displayed the day before and says, “It’s just…you said I could bring Chanyeol-hyung back and you could get Kyungsoo-hyung and—”

“Don’t be silly,” Baekhyun snaps. “I said no such thing.”

Jongin purses his lips and falls silent.

Neither of them speak again until a faint scratching sound comes from the hooktail nest. Jongin is immediately on alert, grasping the end of the rope tightly in his fist as he waits for the creature to crawl out. Baekhyun crouches next to him, watching the nest’s entrance like a cat stalking its prey.

The pincers appear first, powerful and menacing, followed by a segmented, black body. The hooktail pauses in the mouth of its nest, holding one of its pincers aloft and prodding at the loose dirt with one of its many legs, and Jongin fears that it’s going to change its mind and return to the depths of its burrow. Luckily, the hooktail eventually continues to crawl out of its nest, stepping over the bottom of the noose that Jongin had planted at the entrance.

Its head and pincers had just passed over the noose when Jongin yanks on the rope, letting it tighten around the hooktail’s midriff and dragging it fully out of its nest. The sudden motion shocks the hooktail into raising its pincers, and its thick, rope-like tail whips around as it stabs wildly in the direction of the rope but fails to hit anything.

Instinct kicks in as Jongin drags the hooktail closer, placing a foot on its flat body to prevent it from scuttling away. The curved stinger on the creature’s tail misses his leg by centimeters, and Jongin drops the rope to seize it, refusing to let it pull back for another attack. The hooktail is screaming now, sounding like an injured piglet as it writhes in Jongin’s hold.

Jongin curses hooktails, curses Hyunseung, and curses his own choices as he struggles to keep the hooktail under control. Then, he catches sight of Baekhyun, who is standing awkwardly to the side and looking uncertain of what to do, and he gets a brilliant idea.

“Hyung!” he pants. “Use your light! Cast an illusion and make this thing calm down!”

If Baekhyun responds verbally, Jongin doesn’t hear it but he sees Baekhyun raise one hand, and in a matter of seconds, the hooktail’s struggling dwindles until it lies on the ground as complacently as a sleepy dog. Jongin takes the chance to take out the ten-milliliter vial that he had bought and hold it up to the hooktail’s stinger. Without prompting, Baekhyun’s brow furrows as he manipulates the illusion. Soon, beads of venom start to drip from the hooktail’s stinger, slowly and steadily filling up the vial.

It takes several minutes before the venom fills to the ten-milliliter marker etched on the vial. Once there’s enough for both of them, Jongin releases the hooktail, making sure to toss it a good distance away so that it can’t attack them once Baekhyun dispels the illusion. Then, he seals the vial and stows it away in his bag.

The sun has already transformed into a dying orb of orange sinking below the horizon, so Jongin and Baekhyun decide to camp in the wilderness for the night instead of heading back to Traveler’s Village. They head a few yards southwest until they’re out of hooktail territory and can no longer see the Red Ruins in the distance before setting up camp beneath an overhanging rock. The short conversation they have over who’s taking first watch is stilted and ends with Jongin curling up on his side, back to the campfire while Baekhyun leans against the rock and watches the flickering flames.

The stifling silence makes Jongin miss the times he spent camping with Chanyeol, exchanging stories in hushed whispers and fond gazes with interlaced fingers. The memories send a familiar pang through Jongin’s chest, but it cannot compare to the pain of dreaming about Chanyeol.

The Chanyeol in Jongin’s dreams looks happy as he pokes at the fire with a stick and nods his head to the beat of “Prestige.” Jongin automatically starts humming, having heard Chanyeol sing “Prestige” so often that the lyrics are stuck in his head, and upon hearing Jongin sing, Chanyeol turns to smile at him. The sight steals Jongin’s breath, making his voice crack.

Chanyeol laughs as he sits next to Jongin and intertwines their fingers. “What was that?” he teases. “Did my handsomeness startle you so much that you forgot how to sing?”

He looks at Jongin expectantly, but Jongin can’t muster up the words for a smart retort. All he can do is stare.

The expression on Chanyeol’s face morphs into one of worry. “What’s wrong? What are you staring at?” He rubs at his jaw and mouth with one hand. “Is there something on my face?”

Jongin swallows the lump in his throat and croaks, “I miss you.”

Chanyeol looks startled by the admission, but Jongin doesn’t expect an image of Chanyeol in his dream to know how much the past three and a half years have hurt. However, that doesn’t stop him from grasping Chanyeol’s hand like it’s the only thing keeping him sane.

“We’ve been together for the past few months,” Chanyeol says, rubbing small circles on the back of Jongin’s hand with his thumb. “That’s not enough for you?”

Jongin shakes his head, trying to hide the wetness in his eyes. “Not enough,” he shudders as he tries to stop himself from crying. “Never enough.”

Chanyeol pulls him into a hug, and Jongin buries his face in the crook of Chanyeol’s neck, letting Chanyeol’s cloak soak up the tears that flow relentlessly down his cheeks. Chanyeol’s fingers comb through Jongin’s hair in an attempt to comfort him but it only makes Jongin feel worse. He wants to calm down so he can tell Chanyeol about the Dancing Phoenix, their brothers, and anything else that comes to mind, but he can’t stem the grief that he had kept bottled up for years. Unwilling to let it flow while he is awake, Jongin chokes on his grief in the solidarity of his dreams and when he wakes, he locks it back up as securely as he can and throws away the key.

There are a couple of stray tears leaking from the corners of his eyes when Jongin jolts awake. He wipes them away as surreptitiously as he can and freezes when he hears Baekhyun speak.

He breathes a sigh of relief and annoyance when he realizes that Baekhyun isn’t talking to him but to some new perceived presence of Kyungsoo. Checking to make sure that there isn’t any lingering wetness clinging to his eyelashes, Jongin pushes himself to a sitting position. Baekhyun immediately clamps his mouth shut, eyeing Jongin warily.

“I’ll keep watch now,” Jongin says. “Get some sleep.”

Jongin is glad that he has second watch because it gives him a chance to pull himself together before they begin traveling again. He has a chance to think as he keeps the campfire alive, and he resolutely keeps his thoughts away from his dream. Instead, he thinks about Baekhyun. He needs the patience and mental fortitude to deal with Baekhyun’s insanity for the next month or so as they gather the reagents and make their way to Mourning Fog. He thinks about the Dancing Phoenix and wonders how Sehun and the rest of his staff are managing. Will there still be a tavern for Jongin to go back to when everything is over? He thinks about Junmyeon—who has been grieving for Jongdae ever since the war—and promises that he will tell Junmyeon all about the potion if it works.

As the sun rises over the horizon, Jongin allows himself to think of Chanyeol and hope that the next time they see each other will be when Jongin is bringing Chanyeol back to life.

He prods Baekhyun awake and they continue traveling west. Jongin works on reviving his dormant teleportation power as they walk and manages to vanish and reappear a few yards away. After five days of travel, Jongin and Baekhyun finally arrive in the vibrant town of Spinning Silk.


	2. Chapter 2

Spinning Silk is a town of simple opulence that is proudly displayed in their stylish clothes and refined mannerisms. On a normal trip to Spinning Silk, Jongin would usually take some time to look at the new clothes and admire the pretty stones sewn into the collar of a tunic, but this time, he is on a mission.

Seeing that the sun is starting to set, Jongin and Baekhyun hurry to the apothecary of Spinning Silk, ignoring the aching of their feet in favor of barging into the apothecary as soon as possible. The shopkeeper raises an eyebrow at their entrance.

Jongin doesn’t waste any time. “How much is it for one hundred milliliters of syncin syrup?”

The shopkeeper’s eyebrow moves higher. “One hundred milliliters?” he repeats. When Jongin nods, he continues, “That would be two and a half pounds of gold.”

Jongin’s stomach drops. Two and a half pounds in gold is far more expensive than he remembers, and he has nowhere near enough money. He doesn’t expect Baekhyun to have any gold, but it doesn’t stop him from shooting his brother a pleading look. Baekhyun makes an apologetic face and shakes his head.

The shopkeeper wears a sympathetic expression when Jongin looks back up. “Yeah, syncin syrup is very expensive,” he says. “Are you sure you don’t want to buy a smaller amount?”

“I can’t,” Jongin replies breathlessly as his gaze flicks throughout the shop. “I—one hundred is the lowest we can go. Is there another way we can pay, like—like helping around the apothecary or something?”

Now, the shopkeeper looks sheepish. “Well, I’d love to let you work here,” he starts, “but there’s really nothing that needs to be done.”

Jongin opens his mouth, ready to beg for the syncin syrup if he had to, but Baekhyun grabs his forearm and says, “We understand. Thank you for your time.”

“What are you doing?” Jongin hisses once they’ve left the apothecary. “We _need_ that syncin syrup, hyung!”

The dying light of the sun leaves a glint in Baekhyun’s eyes. “I know, and we’ll get that syncin syrup,” he retorts quietly as he pulls Jongin up onto the roof of the stables next to the apothecary. “But if you try and beg for work to pay for it, then we’ll be stuck here for the next five years.”

Jongin watches as Baekhyun settles down on the cold tiles. “Then what’s your plan?”

Baekhyun sighs as though Jongin is a child who is pestering him with questions of why the universe works the way it does. “We’re going to wait until the man leaves before we sneak in and take what we need.”

“We’re going to _steal_?” Jongin sputters, and Baekhyun shushes him.

“Would you rather wait then?” Baekhyun hisses. “Because you might be alright with that, but I’m not!”

It’s out of a mixture of concern for and fear of Baekhyun that Jongin eventually agrees to accompany his brother into the apothecary before dawn for the syncin syrup. It takes a couple tries for him to teleport them into the apothecary, and even then, he nearly sends Baekhyun into a shelf and it’s Jongin’s quick reflexes that stop the shelf from tipping over and ruining the whole mission.

“Hurry up!” Baekhyun whispers and the two of them head for the shelf behind the counter. The large jar of syncin syrup flashes a dim gold in the lightless building, and Baekhyun hauls it off the shelf as Jongin takes the two fifty-milliliter vials out of his bag, holding them still as Baekhyun struggles with the jar.

“Shit,” Baekhyun hisses after a moment. “I’m gonna need some light.”

Jongin squeezes his eyes shut as the small orb of light materializes in the palm of Baekhyun’s hand and bounces around until it settles next to the vials. Now that he can see, Baekhyun bends over the counter and carefully pours the syncin syrup into the vials.

Beside him, Jongin taps his foot and stares at the street outside, fearing that someone would come walking by and see their crime. “Quickly, hyung,” he whispers.

Baekhyun pours a little faster, and soon, both vials are filled with syrup. Jongin seals the vials and stows them back into his bag while Baekhyun returns the syrup jar to its place on the shelf and waves his hand at the orb of light to dispel it. Then, Jongin grasps Baekhyun by the elbow and teleports them outside.

The sun is starting to peek over the horizon as they hurry through the quiet streets of Spinning Silk, and it points Jongin and Baekhyun in the direction they need to go. They head away from the sun, crossing the river and circling around the Forest of Illusions as they head south towards the City of Golden Bells.

“I want to talk to Yixing-hyung about the potion,” Jongin says when Baekhyun asks why they aren’t going to the Place of Crawlers for the gnerkle root. “He’s the best healer the world has seen, so he should definitely be able to tell us something about the potion.”

Baekhyun nods and doesn’t argue, and the two of them press on. Jongin swears that a crow follows them on their journey because he keeps hearing the rough cawing of the bird. However, he finds nothing every time he looks around for the bird, and the raucous cries disappear by the time they arrive in the City of Golden Bells.

The Lee family’s residence is as grand as Jongin remembers it. Golden lace curtains decorate every corner of the palace, and servants hurry about in their duties. In the front courtyard, several Lee disciples practice their cultivation skills through dueling, swords flashing and robes of gold and white flowing as they dance around each other.

Unfortunately, Lee Jihoon and his wife, Kyungmi, don’t look pleased to see Jongin and Baekhyun but send for Yixing all the same. They ask questions about Jongin and Baekhyun’s wellbeing out of politeness while waiting for Yixing to arrive, but Jongin notices that they repeatedly cast disapproving glances at Baekhyun. The atmosphere is becoming stifling in the presence of the Lee family’s judgment, and Jongin straightens up in relief when Yixing finally shows up.

“You should have sent me a letter!” Yixing admonishes as he pulls Jongin and Baekhyun into a firm hug. “I would have set aside some time to take you around the city!”

Baekhyun smiles. “Unfortunately, hyung, we’re just stopping by for the day. We’re going to be heading for the Place of Crawlers tomorrow.”

“Oh, then you should stay the night,” Yixing says and glances at the Lees for permission. “There is plenty of space here.”

Lee Jihoon exchanges a look with his wife. “Certainly,” he says, “there is plenty of space in our home, but that space is reserved for clear-minded people.”

It’s a jab at Baekhyun’s reputation as a madman, and despite Jongin’s own attitude towards Baekhyun’s bouts of insanity, he still feels a defensive spark in his navel. Meanwhile, Yixing’s mouth sets in a thin line.

“My brother’s mind may be muddled from time to time,” Yixing states, “but he is still my brother.”

“Even if you ignore his madness,” Lady Kyungmi speaks up, “there is still the recent incident in Spinning Silk where someone stole an ample amount of syncin syrup.”

She doesn’t say it out loud but the way her sharp gaze finds Baekhyun speaks volumes about her suspicions, and her husband makes his own thoughts known with his silence. Jongin’s stomach churns, and the two vials of syncin syrup in his bag suddenly weigh a ton.

Yixing’s eyes flash. “I would hope that my brothers know better than to commit a petty crime and tarnish our master’s name.”

It’s getting increasingly more difficult for Jongin not to hang his head in shame. He doesn’t know how Baekhyun can still stand with his head held high and look the Lee family in the eye, but Jongin doesn’t dare speak up and can only wallow in the guilt of betraying Yixing’s trust.

The Lees don’t look convinced, but they exchange another glance and give in, not wanting to offend Yixing. Yixing inclines his head and leaves, beckoning to Jongin and Baekhyun to follow him deeper into the halls of the palace. A couple of servants join them and tail the group, ready to offer assistance if asked.

After a minute or two of walking, Yixing stops in front of a set of doors. “This is my room,” he announces to Jongin and Baekhyun as he slides the doors open.

It’s a spacious room from what Jongin can see. There are stacks upon stacks of notes on Yixing’s desk and some loose sheets of paper scattered across the floor. A pot of incense burns in the corner of the room, filling the area with the smell of lavender. Another set of doors is open on the other side of the room, and Jongin can see the sliver of blue, green, and white from the lotus pond outside Yixing’s quarters.

“So, Jongin,” Yixing says as he sends the servants to bring some tea, “I’m surprised that you’re not managing your tavern. What’s so important in the Place of Crawlers that you would leave the Dancing Phoenix?”

Jongin looks at Baekhyun and pulls out the list of reagents from the folds of his outer robe, handing it to Yixing as he recounts his meeting with Hyunseung and how the potion is supposed to allow the drinker to contact the spirit realm and bring one dead person back to life.

Yixing nods slowly as he scans the list. “Interesting,” he murmurs, “I’ve never seen a potion like this before.”

“Hyunseung said a lot of it is speculative.”

“And you’re getting enough for the both of you?”

“Yes.”

Yixing hums and raises an eyebrow at something on the list. An unreadable expression crosses his face, but Jongin is familiar enough with his brother to realize that Yixing is about to scold him.

“And where did you two get the money to pay for one hundred milliliters of syncin syrup?” Yixing questions, fixing them with a piercing stare.

Jongin is tempted to lie and say that he had saved up lots of money from running the Dancing Phoenix, but Yixing is no fool and lying to him will just make him angrier. Yixing is slow to anger but also slow to forgive and alienating him is not something Jongin ever wants to do.

Even Baekhyun has the decency to look somewhat ashamed as he mumbles, “We stole it.”

“Speak up, Baekhyun,” Yixing tells him. “What did you say?”

Baekhyun swallows and looks away, so Jongin is the one who repeats it. “We stole it.”

“You stole it,” Yixing echoes as though he can’t believe what he just heard. “Stole it.” He paces before them, one hand clenched into a fist as though he wants to punch them. However, Yixing has always been a devout believer of striking in self-defense so after a moment, his hand relaxes, and he rounds on Jongin and Baekhyun with furious words instead.

“I can’t believe you two!” he hisses. “Did you retain nothing of what Master taught you? What do you think she picked us up from the streets for? Definitely not for you two to become petty criminals!” He turns to Baekhyun and continues to scold, “Baekhyun, you’re older than Jongin! You should know better than to let him steal!”

Baekhyun doesn’t respond. Jongin can’t see his expression, and even though it had been Baekhyun’s idea to steal in the first place, Jongin still feels horrible about the whole thing. “We’re sorry, hyung,” he pleads, faltering when Yixing pins an angry gaze on him instead. “We didn’t think clearly. We just knew that it was a way for us to see Kyungsoo-hyung and—and Chanyeol-hyung.”

Yixing inhales sharply as though he’s about to continue lecturing them, but he lets out his breath in a sigh instead. Turning away from Jongin and Baekhyun, he begins to rummage through his drawers. Jongin thinks he hears the clinking of metal.

“How much was the syncin syrup?” Yixing asks quietly.

“Two and a half pounds of gold,” Jongin answers just as quietly, as though the slightest noise will cause Yixing to start scolding them again.

There are a few more clinks, and then Yixing turns around with a white pouch in his hand. He holds it up and says, “There are two and a half pounds of gold in here. You two will take this to Spinning Silk and give it to the shopkeeper you stole from and apologize for what you’ve done. Understood?”

Jongin and Baekhyun nod obediently, and Jongin reaches out to take the pouch. However, Yixing pulls his arm back.

“I’m not done yet.” He gives Jongin a strict look. “Promise me that you’ll make sure I’m around before you brew this potion. I want to keep an eye out for adverse effects.”

“You’ll have to come to Mourning Fog then,” Jongin explains, “Hyunseung said that he’s going to be waiting for me there because he wants to see if the potion is effective.”

Yixing sniffs and hands over the gold. “I’ll let Lord Jihoon know.”

Jongin and Baekhyun decide to drop off the gold after getting the gnerkle root from the Place of Crawlers. They set off for the pier early the next morning to catch a boat. Yixing accompanies them and hands Baekhyun a bag as they’re preparing to depart.

“Some food for the road,” Yixing says. “Save your money for the gnerkle root.”

The trip from the City of Golden Bells to the Place of Crawlers takes nearly two days, and it’s high noon when Jongin and Baekhyun finally catch sight of land. Jongin sees the long spindly claws of a crawler disappear into the depths of the water as the ship approaches the dock. He isn’t worried about the creatures. Despite their hideous appearance, they are rather harmless, preferring to keep to themselves rather than interact with living humans.

There is no apothecary in the Place of Crawlers, but there is a teahouse that sells gnerkle root. Seeing that there are no other customers in the shop, Jongin and Baekhyun immediately make a beeline for the counter where the shopkeeper is cleaning a mug.

“Excuse me,” Jongin says, “do you have ten ounces of gnerkle root in stock?”

The shopkeeper turns to the shelves behind him. “Uh, let’s see…” he drawls as he scans the shelves and plucks out a jar that contains just a few roots on the bottom. “Ah, unfortunately, I don’t have ten ounces. This is probably only about seven ounces of gnerkle.”

He opens the jar and dumps the contents out onto a scale on the counter. The scale bobs for a moment, and when it settles, the pointer is halfway between seven and eight. “Yeah, I don’t have ten ounces. Would you like to buy these anyway?”

Jongin almost curses out loud, but he swallows it back down and nods. “Yes, please.” He watches the shopkeeper scoop the gnerkle into a small paper bag and asks, “Are you sure you don’t have any more?”

The shopkeeper shakes his head. “I keep all my wares on display, and this was all the gnerkle the grove owner gave me to sell.”

“The owner can’t cut some more roots to sell?” A trace of desperation is starting to creep into Jongin’s voice.

“Not unless he wants to kill his gnerkle trees.” The shopkeeper seals the bag and places it on the counter. “That’ll be eight gold pieces.”

Jongin chews on his bottom lip as he takes out his money pouch and counts eight gold. He glances at Baekhyun as he does so and sees that his brother is already watching him. Baekhyun shoots Jongin a meaningful look when he sees Jongin looking at him, and Jongin hands over the money and accepts the gnerkle roots from the shopkeeper.

The gnerkle grove isn’t difficult to find, even at night. Rows upon rows of neatly planted trees stand in an area enclosed by iron fences, leafless branches stretching out above Jongin’s head like black fissures in the sky.

“We’re leaving money this time, so it’s technically not stealing, right?” Jongin asks Baekhyun, who is walking ahead of him.

“Right,” Baekhyun replies as he crouches beside a gnerkle tree. The tiniest orb of light appears in his hand, and Baekhyun places it on the ground as he pulls out a knife. “Keep watch and let me know if someone’s coming.”

“Hurry up,” Jongin mumbles as he looks around anxiously. He can see a light coming from the house at the edge of the grove and prays that the owner of the grove doesn’t notice Baekhyun’s little orb.

Unfortunately, Jongin’s prayers aren’t answered because it’s not long before a figure holding a lantern leaves the house. Jongin watches apprehensively as the figure pauses at the edge of the grove. “Hyung.”

Baekhyun doesn’t respond, too busy sawing away at another root to pay attention to Jongin’s panicked whispering.

“Hyung!” Jongin repeats louder and more urgently as the figure with the lantern starts hurrying in their direction.

Baekhyun’s head snaps up, and upon seeing the approaching figure, he dispels the light orb. However, it’s too late because barely seconds later, the figure’s lantern swings over them, illuminating the outraged face of the gnerkle grove owner.

“What the _fuck_ do you think you’re doing?”

Jongin hears Baekhyun swear and the fear of having gotten caught makes him instinctively throw his arm out, palm facing the owner. His power activates, creating a vacuum just below the man’s right shoulder. It enlarges and starts swallowing the owner, trying to spit him out somewhere that’s not here so that Jongin and Baekhyun can finish gathering the gnerkle roots and run.

Then, the man swings his lantern at Jongin, and in the second that he takes to dodge the blow, his concentration breaks. The vacuum slams shut on the man, and Jongin hears a choked cry and feels the warm spatter of blood on his face. He stares at the shape lying on the ground. It used to be a man, but now, it’s missing the upper half of its torso along with a good chunk of its head and neck. Blood pools on the ground as the remains of the man twitch once, twice, and then fall still. Jongin realizes the magnitude of what he has done and stands frozen, unable to look away until Baekhyun seizes his hand and pulls him away. Jongin lets Baekhyun lead him out of the grove and to the beach, where Baekhyun shoves him to kneel at the waterside, scoops out some water with his hands, and vigorously scrubs at Jongin’s face.

“Need to wash off the blood,” Baekhyun mutters even though Jongin doesn’t ask. There is a look of abject terror on his face as he rubs at Jongin’s cheek. “It was an accident. That’s all. Just an accident. Kyungsoo won’t blame me, right?”

He’s talking to himself now, so Jongin stays silent and wallows in his own shock and guilt. He barely registers Baekhyun wiping off his face and helping him up off the sand, and their walk back into town is a blur. When he sees the horizon starting to turn pink with the rising sun, Jongin can’t even remember if he slept or not.

There is a commotion going on in the Place of Crawlers today. Jongin watches the people run through the streets and hears them shout to each other. Someone is dead. Thieves in the gnerkle grove. Someone is dead. Increase security. Someone is _dead_.

The shopkeeper of the teahouse is there as well, standing in the center of a small group of people. He’s talking to them, gesturing with his hand as he speaks, and Jongin doesn’t need to be there to know that the shopkeeper is telling the people about him and Baekhyun. At this rate, Baekhyun’s plan of sneaking back to the grove for the roots won’t work due to the sheer number of people patrolling the grove.

Jongin, however, is starting to have second thoughts. When he had set out from the Dancing Phoenix about nineteen days ago, he hadn’t considered that he would be committing thievery and murder on his journey to acquire the reagents he needs for the potion. A small part of him blames Baekhyun for it, but Jongin is also well-aware that he had made a conscious decision to follow Baekhyun’s initiative so he is just as much to blame.

Now, as he watches the townspeople organize patrols, Jongin wonders if bringing Chanyeol back from the dead is worth all of this.

Baekhyun senses the self-doubt almost at once, considering that he has been trying to get Jongin to help come up with another plan to retrieve the gnerkle root that they still need. He stares down at Jongin with a displeased expression when the other doesn’t offer more than the occasional grunt to anything Baekhyun says.

“So this is it then?” Baekhyun sneers and crosses his arms. “You’re giving up now?”

When Jongin doesn’t respond, Baekhyun snorts and casts a cloak of invisibility over himself. The sound of his footsteps fades as he leaves Jongin on the roof, and even as the sky darkens, there is no sign of Baekhyun returning. Jongin goes to sleep alone that night.

When Jongin wakes up the next morning, he knows something is wrong. There is an underlying tension in the town’s atmosphere as people are still searching for him and Baekhyun, but no one had found Jongin on the roof overnight. Baekhyun is still the only one who knows where Jongin is hiding.

And Jongin knows that Baekhyun is the one who stole the list of reagents along with his bag last night while Jongin slept.

Jongin stares at the loose strings that are still wrapped around his belt, letting the cold wave of betrayal wash over him. Baekhyun had taken everything and left Jongin behind, discarding him when it’s supposed to be Jongin’s journey to make, and the resentful voice in Jongin’s head screams and howls that Baekhyun has stolen Chanyeol until the cold betrayal turns into an inferno of rage.

The fire spurs Jongin into action as he scrambles to his feet. He jumps off the roof and glides to the ground, ignoring the shouts of surprise from the civilians as he dashes for the pier. Baekhyun would try to take the quickest way back to the City of Golden Bells, and Jongin just hopes that the boat hasn’t left the pier yet. Unfortunately, as the pier comes into view, Jongin is dismayed to see that the only boat there is a fishing boat.

He stands there for a moment, staring at the crawlers floating in the water. Anger still pulses through his body, making him curl and uncurl his fingers. For a second, he entertains the thought of wrapping them around Baekhyun’s neck.

The idea calms him down a little, enough for Jongin to remember that he’s a wanted man in the Place of Crawlers. He looks around, and sure enough, there are people staring at him. The two men on the fishing boat are whispering to each other.

Not giving them time to determine if he is the man they’re looking for, Jongin turns and runs. He doesn’t stop until the grass beneath his feet fades to sand. Jongin doubles over, gasping for breath. The adrenaline is starting to die, leaving Jongin to plan how he’s going to track down Baekhyun.

Baekhyun should still be on the way to the City of Golden Bells right now, so Jongin can head to Yixing first and grab Baekhyun the moment the traitor steps off the boat. He just needs to get to the City of Golden Bells before Baekhyun does, and he can only do that if he teleports close enough to the City of Golden Bells. Still, it’s the only way Jongin can catch Baekhyun, so he takes a deep breath and tries.

He focuses on a spot a mile or two north of the City of Golden Bells and opens a vacuum, stepping through it to find himself a few yards away from the spot he had wanted. His teleportation still isn’t completely accurate over long distances, but it’s good enough for him.

He wastes no time heading south and thinks of what he’s going to tell Yixing. He doesn’t want to tell Yixing about how he accidentally killed someone, especially since Yixing will ask how that happened and Jongin doesn’t think he can live down the shame of attempting to steal right after Yixing had lectured him not to. However, he’s not sure he’d be able to get away with lying. After all, Baekhyun might tell Yixing the truth or come up with his own fabricated story to discredit Jongin.

Jongin is so lost in thought that he barely notices when he enters the patch of sparse woodland just outside of the City of Golden Bells, but he definitely sees the dark splatter marks that stain the ground. Blinking, he raises his head and notices that the same splotches on the trees around him. Cautiously, he inspects the pattern and color and while doing so, notices that there are also cuts in the trees that look like they had been made by a sword.

The splashes of dried blood are old, so Jongin shrugs and continues walking. However, he barely makes it a few paces before he comes across someone kneeling on the ground. The man is still holding onto his sword, and to his horror, Jongin recognizes the jade-green tassel hanging from the sword’s handle.

He hurries around to confirm the man’s identity, disturbing the crows that had been picking at the corpse, and whimpers when he sees the remains of Yixing’s face. His mouth goes dry and his stomach feels hollow. Blood roars in his ears, and he can’t remember when he had knelt in front of Yixing’s corpse. He sees the gaping wound in Yixing’s chest and chokes out Yixing’s name. His eyes burn, but he doesn’t cry.

He kneels there for what feels like an eternity before he notices the character carved into the ground. _Baek_.

Yixing must have written that before he died because the tip of his sword is still embedded in the ground at the tail of the character. Jongin reads the character over and over, and each time, he finds it difficult to believe that Baekhyun would kill Yixing.

Then, something gold catches Jongin’s eye, and he reaches over to pick it up, turning it over in his hand. It’s the Lee family’s golden bell crest. Every Lee disciple and affiliate carries one as a way of stating they’re with the Lee family. Yixing has one as well, and at first, Jongin thinks that it’s Yixing’s crest. However, when he checks Yixing’s belt, he sees Yixing’s bell still dangling at Yixing’s waist. Jongin glances from the bell crest to _Baek_ to Yixing’s body and thinks he knows what happened.

The Lee family had killed Yixing and is trying to frame Baekhyun.

Jongin isn’t the type to act rashly without getting a second opinion first, but the resentment from Baekhyun’s betrayal still stings. That, along with the anger and grief of finding Yixing dead, makes Jongin reckless.

He teleports to the front courtyard of the Lee residence. There is nobody out training, so there is no one to stop Jongin from unsheathing his sword and storming inside. A servant catches sight of him, and her eyes widen as she drops before fleeing deeper into the palace, screaming for Lee Jihoon. Good. That means Jongin won’t have to search for the man himself.

Lee Jihoon sweeps into the main hall with a thunderous expression. Lady Kyungmi follows him in, lips pressed into a thin line of disapproval. A couple disciples tail them, clutching their swords in their hands as they stare at Jongin.

“What is the meaning of this?” Lord Jihoon snaps, staring at Jongin’s sword. “You dare barge in here and unsheathe your sword against us?”

Lady Kyungmi looks around. “Where is that mad brother of yours?” she asks sharply.

Jongin disregards their questions and poses one of his own. “Where is Zhang Yixing?”

Lord Jihoon and Lady Kyungmi exchange looks. “Yixing is not here right now. What do you need him for?”

Jongin snorts. “Of course he’s not here right now. His corpse is currently kneeling in the woodlands just outside the city!”

The Lees blink in shock, but before they can say anything, Jongin continues, “And you know what I found next to him? Look for yourselves! I don’t think you’ll have any trouble recognizing it!” With that, he throws the bell crest at Lord Jihoon’s feet.

Lord Jihoon picks up the crest, and his ears turn red in anger. “Are you accusing us of treachery, Kim Jongin?” he roars, “You may be one of Yixing’s brothers, but that does not give you the right to speak carelessly!”

“Are you saying you had nothing to do with my brother’s death?” Jongin spits back, “How else would your crest have ended up next to him when he still has his own crest tied to his waist? For all I know, one of your disciples could have killed him, and you’re trying to protect the murderer!”

Lady Kyungmi suddenly scoffs. “Amazing. You have become a madman just like Byun Baekhyun. How shameless can you be to accuse other people of murder when you are a murderer yourself? I doubt the owner of the gnerkle grove would be pleased to see you acting this way!”

It feels like there’s a barrier separating Jongin from reality. It’s someone else who is taking his sword and slashing it through the air, leaving gaping wounds that ooze blood and staining the gold curtains red. It’s someone else using his teleportation power to gain the upper hand against the numerous disciples in white and gold who try to avenge their fallen masters. It’s someone else viciously kicking aside and cursing the unmoving bodies of Lord Jihoon and Lady Kyungmi as they lie in pools of blood.

The screaming brings Jongin out of his trance. Servants are crying and whimpering in the face of the slaughter, unable to stomach the carnage even though they should be hiding from Jongin’s notice. He can see some of them peeking out from under tables and through the doorway, meeting each terrified gaze with his own.

Then, he flees. A forest replaces the bloodstained palace, and Jongin stumbles, clutching a tree for support. His vision swims, and he passes out.

He doesn’t realize he had fainted until there’s someone shaking his shoulder. His eyes fly open and he sits up, ready to defend himself in case it’s someone hostile. He reaches out for his sword but stops and gapes as Kyungsoo blinks down at him.

“What’s the matter with you?” Kyungsoo says with a trace of amusement in his voice. “Did you end up having a nightmare when you lied down for a nap?”

Jongin blinks owlishly back, mouth still open. Kyungsoo straightens up with a chuckle and says, “Get up. You’ve had enough of a break. Go practice your sword forms with Chanyeol.”

Jongin looks around. He’s no longer in the forest. Instead, he sees the familiar training grounds, complete with training dummies, targets for archery, and an open space for sparring. Jongin knows he’s dreaming now. These training grounds had burned down about four years ago along with his master’s palace.

This dream feels familiar, however, and that’s because something similar had happened in the past. Jongin remembers training with his brothers when his master was too busy to teach him herself. Now, he stands before Chanyeol, who is swinging around one of the training swords. Chanyeol smiles at him, and Jongin drops his gaze.

“Pay attention, Jonginnie!” Jongdae calls from where he sits, swinging his feet as he plays with the blue tassel attached to Junmyeon’s sword. “If you don’t pay attention, you might get hurt!”

Jongin looks up to see Chanyeol charging at him, sword raised as though to run Jongin through. Jongin evades instinctively, unsheathing his own training sword as he moves out of the way. He slashes at Chanyeol’s back, but the other predicts the move and blocks it before he spins around and executes a sword technique so fast that Jongin is forced to retreat.

“You better move faster than that,” Chanyeol teases, “or you’ll never be able to kill a ghoul!”

It’s the word ‘kill’ that makes Jongin falter and ultimately makes him too slow to dodge Chanyeol’s sword, which pierces his shoulder and sends blood blossoming over his uniform. A pained cry escapes him, and then Chanyeol is at his side, eyes wide with panic.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Chanyeol says frantically, pressing his palm to the wound. “I’m sorry, Jongin! I thought you would dodge. It’s not deep, thank heavens, but I’m so sorry!”

Concerned, the rest of Jongin’s brothers crowd around them, and Yixing gently guides Jongin to sit down in the shade so he can examine the wound. Chanyeol follows with his head bowed.

“Accidents happen,” Yixing says over Chanyeol’s ceaseless apologies as he bandages the injury.

Jongin looks at Chanyeol. There’s a dash of fondness as he observes the red rimming Chanyeol’s eyes and the wetness clinging to Chanyeol’s lashes. Hesitantly, Jongin reaches over and taps Chanyeol’s nose, smiling when Chanyeol glances up at him.

“I’m okay,” he reassures.

Chanyeol doesn’t smile back as he stares into Jongin’s eyes. He opens his mouth, and his voice breaks as he asks, “Are you really?”

Jongin wakes with his cheek pressed against a protruding tree root. Chanyeol’s question is still echoing in his mind as he picks himself up off the ground and leans against the tree. It felt like the Chanyeol in his dream had known exactly what Jongin has done, and Jongin is surprised that the dream version of Chanyeol didn’t seem to be angry with him for it.

But to answer Chanyeol’s question, he hasn’t been okay. Not after accidentally murdering a man, getting betrayed by Baekhyun, discovering Yixing’s corpse, and slaughtering the Lee family. But then again, Jongin doesn’t think he was okay even before the mess that started last night. He’s so tired, and if he were anyone else, he might have given up on his journey. After all, what’s the point of it now? His reputation is no doubt in shambles, and even if he brings Chanyeol back, he doubts that they can live the quiet life they’ve always wanted.

But then, he thinks about Chanyeol and he doesn’t feel so exhausted anymore.

Jongin needs a plan. He still has the bag of gold that Yixing had given him for the syncin syrup since he had stowed that away in his robes rather than in his bag. The least he can do for Yixing is to honor his promise and deliver it to the apothecary in Spinning Silk. After that, he needs to get some food and then start tracking down Baekhyun. Sehun and the Dancing Phoenix can help him with that.

Jongin first teleports to the lake just outside of Spinning Silk, where he waits for nightfall. Under the cover of darkness, he teleports into the Spinning Silk apothecary and nearly lets out a squawk.

The shopkeeper, on the other hand, does yell in surprise. Despite the initial shock, Jongin isn’t actually surprised to see the shopkeeper still here. He expects that the security in the apothecary would have increased after he and Baekhyun stole the syncin syrup, even if it’s in the form of the shopkeeper sleeping in the shop overnight. Before the shopkeeper can recover and recognize him, Jongin drops the bag of gold on the floor and disappears.

When he materializes again, he sees the familiar red walls of the Dancing Phoenix.


	3. Chapter 3

There’s something different about the tavern, yet Jongin can’t name it even after he scrutinizes the room. Weariness seeps into his bones as he gazes at the flickering candles on the tables, and he thinks that maybe he is the one who has changed instead.

He hears the dull thudding of footsteps and turns around to see Sehun hurrying down the stairs with a fan gripped tightly in one hand. Upon seeing Jongin in the middle of the room, Sehun stops and stares, still clutching his fan.

“What are you doing here? Did the potion succeed?”

Jongin shakes his head. “No, I…I haven’t brewed the potion yet.”

Sehun snaps open his fan and slowly fans himself with it, still staring. “Why not? Are you having trouble getting the reagents?”

Jongin is well-versed in Sehun’s nervous habits, so the moment the latter had opened his fan, Jongin knew that something wasn’t right. Sehun’s question about gathering the reagents also carries a tone that suggests a double meaning, so Jongin easily realizes that rumors of his crimes have already reached Old Jade Town.

But one thing strikes Jongin as strange. Not even three days have passed since the incident, yet word of how he had accidentally killed someone in the Place of Crawlers has already made it to the other side of the country. Even if someone rides a horse from the Place of Crawlers straight to Old Jade Town, it would take over a week of traveling, so how did Sehun find out so quickly?

Putting that aside, Jongin needs to talk to Sehun first. “You misunderstand,” he says.

Sehun pauses in his fanning. “So you didn’t kill anyone?”

“I did,” Jongin admits, “but it was an accident. I wanted to send him somewhere else, but he swung his lantern at me and broke my concentration.” He swallows and looks away. “The vacuum closed before he was completely through.”

The fan’s movements slow, and Sehun’s eyebrows furrow in thought. Finally, after a long moment of contemplation, he snaps his fan shut and stows it at his waist. “You go upstairs and put your sword down first. I’ll get your bath ready. You look like you got buried alive and dug your way back out.”

Jongin sheepishly looks down at his clothes. There are still bloodstains from when he fought with the Lee family and smears of dirt and grass from when he passed out in the Forest of Illusions. Sehun disappears into the back room as Jongin hurries upstairs to leave his sword next to the desk. He pauses as he looks at the black-painted wood, surprised that he can see the top of the table. He had expected Sehun to leave a mess of scattered papers, but his brother has kept the room surprisingly clean.

He ogles for a moment longer before teleporting back downstairs and heading for the back room. There is a wooden bathing tub in the center of the room and a pot of water sitting over the fire in the fireplace, coils of steam beginning to curl from the surface. As Jongin watches, Sehun tests the water’s temperature and starts scooping water into the tub.

He glances at Jongin as he works. “So,” he starts, “was killing the Lee family an accident, too?”

The question catches Jongin off guard, and he flinches before white-hot anger courses through his veins. “No,” he says harshly, “I killed them because they killed Yixing-hyung.”

Sehun freezes and looks up. “They did _what_?”

Jongin explains how he found Yixing’s corpse in the woodlands north of the City of Golden Bells. He describes the character for _Baek_ that had been scratched in the dirt and the bell crest that had been lying on the ground next to Yixing, and finally, he tells Sehun about how he came to the conclusion that the Lee family had killed Yixing and tried to frame Baekhyun for it.

“Speaking of Baekhyun-hyung, can you track him down for me?” Jongin asks, remembering why he came back in the first place.

“I—yeah, I can.” Sehun looks taken aback. “Why do you need him though?”

Another wave of fury washes over Jongin. “I met him on my way to Traveler’s Village and let him come with me to make the potion, but he betrayed me out in the Place of Crawlers and stole all the reagents we got when I was asleep!”

Sehun doesn’t share in his rage, only watching and listening quietly as Jongin vents the resentful thoughts and feelings that had been festering inside him. When Jongin finishes, Sehun goes back to preparing the bath and says, “Okay. I’ll find him for you.”

They don’t talk much after that. Sehun’s movements are wooden as he finishes filling the bathing tub and leaves, mumbling about getting Jongin new clothes. Jongin strips off his dirtied robes and gets in the tub, scrubbing away the grime and dried blood on his skin. Sehun reappears to drop off some clean clothes and takes away Jongin’s old ones before heading to the kitchen to find something for Jongin to eat.

As Jongin slurps some of the leftover chicken soup, Sehun sits down across from him. “Baekhyun-hyung is near the bottom edge of the Forest of Illusions,” he says simply. “To the southwest.”

Jongin memorizes the location. Chanyeol is waiting for him, and Jongin refuses to lose him to Baekhyun.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Sehun asks.

Jongin downs the rest of his soup. “No.”

It will still take a while for Baekhyun to find the nightberries, so Jongin stays a few nights in the Dancing Phoenix and leaves with his sword early in the morning. He teleports to the southern border and starts following the line of trees. There are clusters of bushes at the roots of the trees, and Jongin can see the clumps of black-and-white nightberries half-hidden beneath the leaves. Then, he sees someone kneeling in front of a bush, and there is a familiar bag lying on the ground next to him.

Jongin is tempted to ambush Baekhyun but ultimately decides not to. Instead, he ducks behind a tree and watches as Baekhyun gathers one pound of nightberries, placing the berries in the jar that Jongin had bought in Traveler’s Village. Jongin waits until Baekhyun finishes gathering the nightberries and seals the jar before he steps out from his hiding place and calls, “Baekhyun!”

Baekhyun whips around, and the look in his eyes makes Jongin step back. With wide, bloodshot eyes and a pale face, it doesn’t seem like Baekhyun recognizes Jongin at all. It’s as though Jongin is facing madness contained in a human vessel.

Then, Baekhyun’s crazed expression turns into a glare and he stands up, stuffing the nightberries into the bag and slinging it over his shoulder. “Jongin.”

Jongin inhales and gathers his courage. “You left me behind.”

“Of course I did,” Baekhyun sneers as he reaches for his sword. “What did you think I was going to do? Wait for you to stop doubting yourself? Kyungsoo doesn’t want to wait that long.”

Upon hearing how unapologetic Baekhyun is, Jongin starts fuming again. “It was _my_ journey,” he argues. “I’m the one who made sacrifices to get all of that. I’m the one paid for the reagents when I could. I’m the one who traded my sigil ring for the list. You stole it all from me!”

With that last sentence, Jongin unsheathes his own sword and attacks Baekhyun. Baekhyun, however, is prepared and he draws his own blade in time to block Jongin’s swing. His derisive laughter echoes as the swords collide with a loud _clang_.

“So what if I steal?” Baekhyun jeers. “If it’ll make Kyungsoo happy, then I’ll steal a hundred times more! A thousand times more! Even if I have to steal from my own brother, I’ll do it gladly!”

They trade heavy blows, and with each exchange, Jongin gets angrier and angrier until he loses all reason and yells, “So being a thief doesn’t faze you, huh! What about being a murderer? Would you kill your own brother if it makes Kyungsoo happy?”

Again, Baekhyun cackles. “Jonginnie, my dear little brother! Did you hit your head when you were slaughtering the Lee family? Between the two of us, the only one who’s a murderer is _you_!”

Jongin manages to knock Baekhyun’s sword away, but Baekhyun still shows no sign of fear. Instead, he continues to laugh and shout, “Are you going to kill me, too, Jongin? Are you going to do it like you did to the man in the Place of Crawlers or like you did to the Lees?”

At this point, Jongin doesn’t care what he has to do to make Baekhyun stop talking, so he swings his sword at Baekhyun’s neck. However, he hadn’t anticipated another sword to appear and block him. Then, the sword’s wielder steps between him and Baekhyun, but Jongin doesn’t need to look to know who it is. He had recognized the blue teardrop tassel dangling from the end of the sword’s handle.

“Have you two gone mad?” Junmyeon yells, staring furiously from Jongin to Baekhyun and back. “What do you think you’re doing?”

In the past, Jongin wouldn’t dare raise his voice at Junmyeon, but at this moment, he is both agitated and enraged, and with his lingering resentment towards Junmyeon himself, he doesn’t hesitate to shout back.

“Stay out of this, hyung! This is between me and that thief!”

Junmyeon’s gaze turns steely. “Things have become like this and you want me to stay out of it? If I were you, I would be more concerned about being a murderer than about Baekhyun’s thievery!”

Jongin barely listens, too focused on how Baekhyun is taking advantage of Junmyeon’s arrival to sneak away. He tries to sidestep Junmyeon to chase after Baekhyun, but Junmyeon mirrors his movement, refusing to let Jongin escape.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Junmyeon snaps, “What in the heavens did you think you were doing? Killing someone at the Place of Crawlers and massacring the Lee family, all for a potion that’s supposed to bring a person back from the dead? You don’t even know if the potion will work! What if it turns out to be poison, huh?”

The resentment that had been building up inside Jongin for the past three and a half years erupts. “So what!” he bellows as he rounds on Junmyeon instead. “So what if it ends up being a poison! So what if I have to kill others to bring Chanyeol back! If Baekhyun can steal for Kyungsoo, then you think I won’t kill for Chanyeol?”

Junmyeon opens his mouth to say something, but Jongin isn’t done.

“What right do you have to lecture me for my actions when you abandoned us after the war ended? You disappeared when we needed you the most, and now you come back and think nothing has changed? Who do you think you are?”

He screams at and curses Junmyeon until his throat is raw and his voice cracks. The ensuing silence is tense, only broken by Jongin’s harsh panting. Meanwhile, Junmyeon looks as though Jongin had taken a knife and driven it into his chest, and when he finally speaks, his voice is small and wounded.

“Why can’t I have time to grieve?” he asks as he stands before Jongin with a wan face and shaking hands. “I worked nonstop to lead you during the Red War and to support everyone when our master was killed. Why can’t I have a chance to grieve for Jongdae on my own?”

Jongin doesn’t answer.

“And then I start hearing people talk about how you’ve killed someone. I wanted to find you to hear the truth, but I see you and Baekhyun fighting and…I just don’t recognize you anymore,” Junmyeon admits sadly. “This isn’t what Chanyeol would have hoped for you to become.”

“ _Don’t_ ,” Jongin hisses. “You don’t have the right to use his name after you abandoned us.”

Again, he tries to push past Junmyeon to chase after Baekhyun, but Junmyeon steps in front of him again.

“Jongin, you—”

Patience completely drained, Jongin lashes out. Junmyeon’s eyes widen in shock and he parries Jongin’s attack, but the motion is awkward and thus, it takes too long for Junmyeon to defend against Jongin’s second strike. Jongin’s sword pierces Junmyeon’s stomach.

Both of them freeze in place as Junmyeon gasps in pain. Wide-eyed, Jongin watches as the dark red blossoms from the wound and stains Junmyeon’s dark blue robes. The sight of his weapon protruding from Junmyeon’s body makes his mind go blank and his blood run cold.

In the end, Junmyeon moves first, stepping backward and pulling himself off of Jongin’s blade when Jongin shows no sign of responding. Blood gushes from the wound as Junmyeon staggers and supports himself with his sword, clutching at the injury and hissing in agony.

Jongin forces his numb legs to move and takes one step back, followed by another. He freezes when Junmyeon looks up at him, and as the other opens his mouth, Jongin—not wanting to accept what he had done—teleports somewhere further south.

He stands there for a moment, face blank, before he starts walking, following the figure that is hurrying alongside the riverbank. His hands tremble violently, so he clenches them, right hand squeezing the handle of his sword that is still stained with Junmyeon’s blood.

Then, Baekhyun looks back over his shoulder, and his eyes meet Jongin’s. He immediately starts running, but Jongin catches him easily as he vanishes and reappears right on top of Baekhyun. The two of them grapple on the ground in a mess of limbs, and as Jongin struggles to subdue Baekhyun, the latter starts yelling at the top of his voice.

“Kyungsoo-yah! Help me! You’ve been following me around for the past year, so the least you can do is save me from this madman!”

“Who’s a madman?” Jongin spits as he finally manages to pin Baekhyun to the ground with a knee to the chest and holds his sword over Baekhyun’s heart. “Kyungsoo’s been dead for years! Get that through your head and stop talking to whatever hallucination your twisted mind conjures up!”

Baekhyun doesn’t respond to that, panting as he stares at Jongin’s blade. After a few seconds, a sickening smile spreads across his face and he coos, “Oh, Jonginnie. Did you kill Junmyeon-hyung when he wouldn’t let you come after me? Killed him like you killed the Lee family? Is that how you’re going to kill me, too?”

Blood rushes in Jongin’s ears, and he is hyperaware of his own heartbeat to the point where he thinks he can feel the rhythmic thuds in his hands as he grasps his sword in such a tight hold that his knuckles turn white.

Baekhyun starts snickering. “Well? What are you waiting for?” he demands. “Kill me like you did with the Lee family! Are you too scared, or do you need a reminder of how you murdered them?”

The ground around them shimmers, and Jongin knows it’s Baekhyun’s power at work when the corpses of Lord Jihoon and Lady Kyungmi materialize on the grass. Baekhyun’s laughter rings loudly in Jongin’s ears, mercilessly mocking him despite the sword positioned inches away from his chest.

The anger boiling in Jongin grows hotter and hotter, and his hands shake uncontrollably. Then, as though something within him had snapped, the rage disappears. Jongin no longer feels anything, as though a bout of rain had come and washed him clean.

He drives his sword into Baekhyun’s chest.

Baekhyun’s cackles immediately change to a choked cry as Jongin yanks his sword out. Baekhyun stares at the bleeding wound on his chest, looking like he had just had a revelation. Jongin watches Baekhyun.

Finally, Baekhyun’s body begins to tremble with a fresh bout of delirious laughter. Blood spurts from his wound as he raises his eyes to meet Jongin’s gaze and speaks his last words between tapering sniggers.

“You’ve gone mad.”

Jongin doesn’t know how long he sits there in silence, staring down at Baekhyun’s unmoving body. There is none of the vindication or relief that he thought would come with Baekhyun’s death. The only thing that exists is a gaping emptiness in his chest.

Baekhyun’s blood has long since mixed into the water flowing in the river before Jongin finally moves. He gets off Baekhyun and lifts the corpse, carefully removing the bloodstained bag from Baekhyun’s shoulder and opening it to examine the contents. Thankfully, all of the reagents are there and nothing is broken, although Jongin can see a large crack splitting the jar of nightberries. It’s only luck that the glass hadn’t been smashed when he and Baekhyun were fighting. Jongin removes everything from the bag and washes out the blood as best he can before putting everything back and hoisting the bag over his shoulder.

He doesn’t spare Baekhyun another glance before he teleports.

The black gates of Mourning Fog tower over him like judges gazing down at him in a court. The guards stare at him as he walks through. Jongin knows they recognize him, but none of them have the power to stop him. They’ll summon some cultivators to capture him the moment they think Jongin is out of earshot, but Jongin has never been easy to hunt down.

However, he doesn’t know where Hyunseung lives.

Unfortunately, Jongin ends up running into a group of cultivators that afternoon while he’s trying to find Hyunseung’s residence. They surround him in the town square, swords unsheathed, and loudly denounce him as a murderer, demanding that he returns to the City of Golden Bells with them to face trial. Before they can seal his spiritual energy, Jongin teleports.

In the end, despite Jongin’s best efforts to find Hyunseung, it’s Hyunseung who finds him instead. Hyunseung’s friend, the man with the rapier, lets out a low hiss to get Jongin’s attention that night as Jongin hurries past their house. Without hesitation, Jongin slips through the open door and shuts it behind him.

From his place at the table, Hyunseung gestures for Jongin to sit as the man with the rapier locks the door and closes the curtains. “About time you got here, Jongin-ssi. I was beginning to think that you were going to back out after everything you did for a chance to make this potion. I must admit that what you did to your tavern was a big surprise.”

Jongin freezes. “What? What happened to the Dancing Phoenix?”

Hyunseung raises an eyebrow. Behind him, the man with the rapier crosses his arms and leans against the wall, watching Jongin with keen interest.

“Did you not burn down the Dancing Phoenix and kill Oh Sehun?”

Jongin can’t find his voice to deny it, but the expression on his face must have given his thoughts away. Hyunseung leans back in his chair with a sigh and says, “The townspeople managed to put out the fire and rescue Sehun-ssi’s corpse. There happened to be a cultivator in Old Jade Town that day, so they conducted an investigation and discovered that Sehun-ssi’s heart was missing. But the thing is, Sehun-ssi’s corpse didn’t have any wounds.”

Jongin sucks in a deep breath.

Hyunseung taps on the wooden table with his finger. “Whoever killed him has the ability to remove his heart without cutting him open,” he says softly, shooting Jongin a knowing look.

“It wasn’t me,” Jongin says harshly. “Someone is trying to frame me. I’ve been at the southern border of the Forest of Illusions, looking for—”

He cuts himself off, unwilling to talk about the events that had transpired. “Either way, I’m not the one who killed Sehun and set the Dancing Phoenix on fire.”

“That’s not the only accusation I heard being thrown around,” Hyunseung says. “There are also rumors that you killed Kim Junmyeon and Byun Baekhyun out by the Forest of Illusions.”

It’s like Hyunseung had just dumped a bucket of ice-cold water over Jongin’s head. “I—”

“Someone saw you,” Hyunseung interrupts. “Someone saw you kill Baekhyun-ssi, so when Junmyeon-ssi’s body was found a while later, people naturally assumed that you killed him, too.”

Jongin knows he didn’t kill Junmyeon. He had injured the latter, yes, but the wound would not have been fatal for someone as strong as Junmyeon. It would not have been too much for Junmyeon to slow the bleeding until he could seek help.

There is someone going around and destroying Jongin’s reputation on purpose.

“Do you believe the rumors?” Jongin asks lowly, fists clenched on his lap.

Hyunseung eyes Jongin for a long moment and exchanges a look with the man with the rapier. “Frankly, I don’t care what you did or who you killed. The only thing I want is to brew this potion and see if it can actually bring back the dead. If you decide to go through with this, you can hide here for the time being because brewing it will take some time. If you decide to back out—”

“I won’t,” Jongin snaps. “I’ve already come this far. I’m not backing out.”

Hyunseung’s mouth splits into a toothy grin. “Good.”

With that, Hyunseung stands up and begins bustling around the room, pulling out a set of scales, a knife, and a black pot. Seeing that Hyunseung is preparing to start making the potion, Jongin slides his bag off his shoulder and starts pulling out all of the reagents, setting the jars and vials on the table.

“This is Woohyun, by the way.” Hyunseung nods at the man with the rapier as he lights a fire under the pot. “He’s here to watch and laugh at me if the potion ends up being useless.”

With a faint smirk dancing across his face, Woohyun inclines his head towards Jongin. Jongin nods back.

From there, Hyunseung starts directing Jongin on brewing the potion. He hands Jongin the knife, the scales, and a cutting board and says, “Slice up and crush five ounces of the gnerkle roots gently. Not too hard, or they’ll start losing their juices before we put them in the pot.”

Jongin nods and gets to work while Hyunseung takes the vial of hooktail venom and carefully pours half of the contents into the pot. Then, seeing that Jongin is finished with the scales, he starts weighing out one pound of the nightberries.

“Do I just put these in the pot?” Jongin asks, pointing at the pile of crushed gnerkle roots.

“Yep.”

Jongin scoops up the roots carefully and drops them in, watching as the roots sink in the hooktail venom and start emitting bubbles.

Hyunseung hands him a pestle. “Crush and mix until the bubbles stop. Then, we’ll add the nightberries.”

Jongin obeys, making sure to thoroughly mix the hooktail venom and gnerkle roots so that the venom gets neutralized. The mixture fizzes and turns from a pale-gold to a colorless liquid. Hyunseung adds the nightberries, and as Jongin crushes those, the juices transform the mixture to a light purple. Once the contents of the pot start to resemble a paste, Hyunseung adds one of the vials of syncin syrup and tells Jongin to stir a few times and then let it sit overnight. As Woohyun leaves the house to buy something to eat, Hyunseung shows Jongin to a spare room and leaves him alone to get settled.

Jongin tosses his bag on the floor and lies down on the bed. Now that his mind isn’t preoccupied with the potion, the memories of the things he has done catch up to him.

Spinning Silk…the City of Golden Bells…the Place of Crawlers…the Forest of Illusions…

He thinks of Yixing and Baekhyun, and a rush of spiteful triumph fills him. He thinks of Junmyeon and Sehun, and the triumph transforms into a scorching rage. Once he brings Chanyeol back, he’s going to hunt down whoever is framing him and make them pay.

Unfortunately, Woohyun throws a damper on that plan the next morning during breakfast, smacking his lips noisily as he eats a red bean bun. “Kim Minseok is looking for Jongin-ssi.”

Jongin’s stomach drops, and he slowly puts down his bun. He had actually forgotten about Minseok in the past few weeks, too focused on obtaining the reagents, avenging Yixing, and pursuing Baekhyun to think about his remaining brother. He wonders how Minseok is doing. “Is he here in Mourning Fog?” he asks Woohyun.

Woohyun shrugs. “Probably, but if he is, I didn’t see him.”

Jongin stares at the table. He thinks he has a good idea of why Minseok is looking for him. After all, who doesn’t know about how Jongin had killed a man in the Place of Crawlers and then slaughtered the Lee family in the City of Golden Bells. On top of that, people know that he killed Baekhyun and are spreading rumors that he killed Junmyeon and Sehun, too. At some point, word must have gotten to Minseok, and Minseok has come to kill Jongin himself.

“He won’t find you here,” Hyunseung says gruffly as he stirs the honey into the potion and lights a fire under the pot.

Jongin hopes Hyunseung is right.

They had just finished breakfast when Hyunseung extinguishes the fire and announces that the potion is ready. Jongin straightens in his chair while Woohyun clears away the leftovers and leans against the wall. Hyunseung carefully pours the potion into a tall glass and sets it in front of Jongin.

Spirals of steam rise from the viscous, lilac liquid. Jongin can smell the sickly-sweet aroma coming from the potion, and he blames his stomach’s restless churning on it. He wipes his sweaty palms on his robes and reaches for the glass, raising it to his lips. He meets Hyunseung’s gaze over the rim for a long moment and then tilts his head back and downs the contents in a few large gulps.

At first, he feels nothing aside from the scalding temperature of the potion as it flows down his throat. Setting the glass down on the table with a _thunk_ , Jongin looks at Hyunseung, who stares back with a look of anticipation on his face. Ten seconds pass…twenty seconds…

Just as Jongin opens his mouth to say that he thinks the potion is ineffective, his head starts to spin. It catches him off guard and he pitches sideways, nearly falling out of his chair before he manages to steady himself. He blinks at Hyunseung, and his vision swims. Dizziness rushes through him so Jongin rests his head on his hands, and the movement feels like it takes a lot more effort than it should.

“I think it’s working.”

There is no response at first. Then, Woohyun starts laughing. Jongin blinks at him blearily and Woohyun looks back at him with an unreadable expression on his face and speaks in an unsettling tone of mocking amusement.

“Suhø-hyung is truly a genius.”

A shiver of foreboding runs down Jongin’s spine at the same time Woohyun’s figure starts to waver. The man’s image twists and ripples as though an invisible blanket is being ripped away, and when it finally settles, Jongin’s blood runs cold.

Baekhyun smirks back at him, relishing in Jongin’s shock as he tilts his head to the side. The chain jewelry stretching across his nose glints as he asks, “Did you like the present I left you outside the City of Golden Bells?”

Malice glimmers in Baekhyun’s aqua-blue eyes, and Jongin realizes that this isn’t Baekhyun. Whoever it is looks and sounds a lot like Baekhyun, but the Baekhyun Jongin knows isn’t this relaxed or looks at Jongin with such clarity.

Hyunseung speaks up, and Jongin freezes. “Judging by the way he immediately went to massacre the Lee family, I would say he enjoyed it very much, Baëkhyun.”

It’s impossible. Chanyeol is dead. Has been dead for the past three and a half years.

Yet it’s Chanyeol and not Hyunseung who is talking and watching Jongin from across the table with a small smile on his face, and for a moment, Jongin is _happy_.

Then, he sees Chanyeol’s empty eyes—one blue and one white—and realizes that this also isn’t the Chanyeol that he knew.

Jongin jolts up from his chair, but the motion sends him stumbling as his head spins and his legs give out. He falls to the floor and knocks his chair over with a loud clatter. Chanyeol’s scornful laughter sounds from above him.

“What’s the hurry, Jongin-ssi?” the imposter asks. “Didn’t you want to see your precious Chanyeol again?”

Jongin sputters, trying to form words, but his throat refuses to cooperate. It is getting difficult to breathe.

“He looks confused, Chanyeøl-ah,” Baëkhyun drawls. “I think we should enlighten him on what’s happened in the past few weeks.”

As he speaks, there is the sound of fluttering wings and a huge crow flies in from the open window. It lands on the table and hops in place, eyeing the room’s occupants and letting out a loud caw. Then, it scurries to the edge of the table and stands there, watching Jongin with great interest.

Without looking away from Jongin, Chanyeøl reaches over and strokes the crow’s head with his thumb. “What past few weeks? Try the past three and a half years instead.” His smile disappears and he looks down at Jongin coldly. “We’ve been putting together a plan to bring you and your brothers down ever since you toppled our fortress and killed three of us.” One corner of his mouth pulls up in a sneer. “You wouldn’t know about us, of course. After all, we had just been created. We didn’t even know how to use our abilities, let alone take part in the war.”

The crow ruffles its feathers, having had enough of Chanyeøl touching it, and Chanyeøl withdraws his hand and nods at the bird. “Our Sehůnnie dispersed his crows to keep an eye on the six of you. I’m sure you might have seen one of them here and there on your journey.”

Jongin had. There had been one in Old Jade Town the night before he met Hyunseung—no, _Chanyeøl_ —and there had been another following him and Baekhyun from Spinning Silk to the City of Golden Bells. With a shudder, he remembers the flock of crows that had been pecking at Yixing’s corpse.

“We observed you for years, learning about your relationships with each other,” Chanyeøl continues. “We watched the six of you fall apart, and that’s when we decided to put our plan into action. We sent you on this journey, and we knew that you didn’t have a good relationship with your Baekhyun, so Sehůnnie sent a message to him pretending to be your Sehun. As we expected, your Baekhyun rushed to find you, and then we just had to watch the rest of our plan fall into place.”

“There were a few possible setbacks,” Baëkhyun adds, picking at his nails. “Like your precious Yixing-hyung. Couldn’t have him looking at the potion too closely and figuring out that it’s actually a poison designed to destroy your spiritual system, so I killed him.” He grins at Jongin. “Framed the Lee family for it, too, and you fell into the trap so perfectly. I made Suhø-hyung buy me a new weapon as a reward.”

Jongin closes his eyes. He feels like he’s going to start crying. He had unleashed all of that anger, vindictiveness, and spite on the wrong people. He should have been more careful. He should have been more observant. He should have investigated more.

Junmyeon had been right: Jongin had been too reckless, too blinded by the prospect of getting Chanyeol back. Now, he sits at the mercy of his enemies, unable to teleport to safety as the poison destroys the flow of spiritual energy through his body, leaving him with a numbness that is swiftly spreading through his body.

“As for the incident with the Dancing Phoenix,” Chanyeøl says. He’s smiling again. “I know it wasn’t you who did it. Kāi is the one who killed your Sehun, and I burned your tavern down. But I do admit that there’s a detail I left out. Do you remember that ring you traded me in exchange for the list of potion reagents?”

Jongin cannot speak, but his eyes give away his thoughts. Chanyeøl chuckles lowly and says, “It was a beautiful ring, and it looked even more beautiful sitting on the floor of the Dancing Phoenix, surrounded by my flames.”

“And don’t worry, your Junmyeon-hyung didn’t die from the wound you gave him,” Baëkhyun interjects, still looking quite pleased with himself for manipulating Jongin into slaughtering the Lee family. “That wound only weakened him enough for Chën to kill him.” He pauses and then adds, “Chën told me that it was satisfying to see the look on your Junmyeon’s face as he died. After all, Chën did make an effort to look as much like Jongdae as possible.”

“But of course, your reputation is bad enough by now that people will instinctively pin any crime on you,” Chanyeøl says. “So I suppose we should thank you for taking the blame off our shoulders.”

With that, he pushes his chair back and makes to stand but stops when Jongin lets out a grunt. Chanyeøl looks at him with mild amusement in his gaze. “Did you say something?”

Jongin musters every last bit of strength and breath remaining in his body and manages to force a word past his numb lips. “Bastard…”

Chanyeøl laughs and approaches Jongin, and Jongin thinks he is going to get hit. However, Chanyeøl merely kneels and reaches out to stroke Jongin’s face. Jongin tries to squirm and get away, but his body refuses to listen and he can only manage a light twitch.

“Jongin-ah, Jongin-ah,” Chanyeøl murmurs, eyes fixed on Jongin’s face in a piercing stare. “Is that how you speak to the person who invented a poison just for you?”

Jongin’s glare doesn’t lessen, even after Chanyeøl withdraws his hand. “You should be happy,” Chanyeøl adds. “After all, you’re going to see your beloved Chanyeol again in a few minutes. Joining him in death…I wonder what he’ll have to say about you being a murderer.”

He gets up and ushers the crow out the window. The bird flaps its wings and lets out an indignant caw before it takes off. After the beating of the crow’s wings fade, Chanyeøl turns to Baëkhyun and says, “Let’s go. There’s still one more we need to dispose of.”

“I know, I know,” Baëkhyun grumbles as he heads for the door, pushing it open and stepping outside. Chanyeøl follows him, brushing his fingers along the surface of the wooden table as he passes. Small flames spring from the place of contact, and they begin to eat away at the wood, slowly and steadily growing larger. Chanyeøl steps over the threshold of the front door and glances back at Jongin’s still form. The smirk on his face is one of victory, but in the orange light of the fire and out of desperation, Jongin imagines that it’s one of the familiar, affectionate smiles that Chanyeol always wears when looking at him.

The door shuts with a bang and shatters the illusion, but Jongin clings to the memories to his last breath.

**Author's Note:**

> [my curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/xAoneko) || [my twitter](https://twitter.com/xAoneko98)
> 
> if you like my works, please consider supporting me on [ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/xaoneko)~


End file.
